Daddy Yankee, the singer of the world hit music "Despacito", is the first ever Latino to dominate Spotify music.
It can be recalled that Daddy Yankee was also famous for his 2004 catchy dance club music titled "Gasolina," which helped him launch his music as the first Puerto Rican artist and reggaeton into mainstream music charts worldwide. However, "Gasolina" failed to made it past number 32 on the Billboard music charts.
More than 10 years later, "Despacito" - performed by Daddy Yankee and Luis Fonsi, featuring Canadian pop singer Justin Bieber - reached no. 1 on Billboard charts in May. It was the first Spanish-language song to top the music charts since 1996 with the song "Macarena."
Daddy Yankee also become the No. 1 artist on Spotify with over 44,735,586 monthly listeners on the famous music streaming network surpassing Ed Sheeran, according to Spotify on Sunday.
"No one believed in me. It cost me many sacrifices and many moments lost with my family," Daddy Yankee said about his decision to focus on music. "I had to face prejudice and discrimination."
"But today, this genre called 'reggaeton' is the most listened to in the world," he continued, thanking his fans. "Family, we did it."
He gave out message in English saying, "brothers around the world who have embraced our culture ... you're part of it. We've been on this way for a long time now."
The Washington Post noted that the rise of Daddy Yankee to charts marks milestone for Latin music industry. It also reflects the growth of Spanish-speaking population in the United States and the emergence of music streaming website like Spotify, which helped boost Spanish-language songs and introduced them to the public.
