Daddy Yankee Concerts Setlist

Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez, better known by his stage name Daddy Yankee, is a Puerto Rican rapper, singer, songwriter, and actor. He was born on February 3, 1976 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Ayala grew up in a family which had many professional musicians. He too started taking singing lessons at an early age. However, his first choice of career was that of a baseball player. Sadly, he had to give up his ambitions as a pro athlete after being shot in the leg.

So, he stuck with the other passion of his, music. As a teenager, he fell in love with Spanish-language hip hop, mainly with the songs of Hispanic-American rapper Vico C. His first music gig was recording two guest spots on a mixtape by underground music producer DJ Playero.

In April 1995, Ayala released his debut album “No Mercy” under the name “Winchesta Yankee” and through White Lion Records. He could only sell a few copies by offering them for purchase after free early Daddy Yankee concert shows at high schools and local dance clubs. However, this was enough for him to be noticed by the local music industry. In 2000, he teamed up with American reggaeton and Latin hip hop artist Nicky Jam to form a musical duo named “Los Cangris” ("The Champs" in English). That partnership lasted until 2004.

In the meantime, in June 2002, Ayala put out the first album to achieve international success, titled “El Cangri.com”. By that time, he switched to his famous stage name “Daddy Yankee”. It peaked at the #43 spot on Billboard’s Latin Albums list.

However, that level of success is nothing compared to what came with the release of “Despacito” ("Slowly"). In January 2017, fellow Puerto Rican pop singer Luis Fonsi released his single “Despacito”, and featured Daddy Yankee on it to perform some rap verses. The music video blew up beyond belief, quickly becoming the most viewed video on YouTube. It hit 3 billion views in August 2017 to break the record. Now, it has over 7 billion views!

Daddy Yankee has put out 8 studio albums in total during his career. The best selling one among them so far has been “Barrino Fino” from July 2004, with around 5 million in sales worldwide. Meanwhile, the latest new Daddy Yankee album came out in March 2022, with the title "Legendaddy". His biggest hits to date are “Limbo” (2008), “La Rompe Corazones” ("The Heartbreaker", 2017), “Con Calma” ("Calmly", 2019) featuring Snow, and “Dura” ("Hard", also 2019).

Daddy Yankee is often credited with coining the phrase “reggaeton” to describe the genre of music popular in Puerto Rico that mixes influences of hip hop, dancehall, and pop. He is one of the pioneering figures in the genre. In March 2022, he announced he would be retiring at age 45 after the end of his upcoming Daddy Yankee concert tour.