Daddy Yankee

Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez (born February 3, 1976), known by his stage name Daddy Yankee, is a Puerto Rican reggaeton singer, songwriter, producer and actor. Ayala was born in Río Piedras, San Juan, Puerto Rico, and was raised in the neighborhood of Villa Kennedy Housing Projects.

Ayala aspired to be a professional baseball player, and tried out for the Seattle Mariners Major League baseball team. Before he could be officially signed, he was hit by a stray round from an AK-47 rifle while taking a break from a studio recording session with reggaeton mix tape icon DJ Playero. Ayala spent roughly one and a half years recovering from the wound; the bullet was never removed from his hip, and he credits the shooting incident with allowing him to focus entirely on a music career. Since then, he has sold over 18 million albums.

Musical career

1992–2003: Early music career

Daddy Yankee first appeared on the 1992 DJ Playero's Mixtape, Playero 34, with the song "So' Persigueme, No Te Detengas". Ayala was originally going to become a professional baseball player but he was shot in his leg while taking a break from a studio recording session. The bullet was never removed and he credits this incident with allowing him to pursue a musical career. He made a few songs talking about the shooting incident, but his most "complete" song about it was "6 De Enero", released in 2012. His first official studio project as a solo artist was No Mercy, which was released on April 2, 1995 through White Lion Records and BM Records in Puerto Rico. Early in his career he attempted to imitate the style of Vico C. He went on to emulate other artists in the genre, including DJ Playero, DJ Nelson, and DJ Drako, taking elements from their styles in order to develop an original style. In doing so, he eventually abandoned the traditional model of rap and became one of the first artists to perform reggaeton.

Oye Mi Canto

"Oye Mi Canto" (English: "Hear My Song") is a reggaeton single by N.O.R.E.. The song was originally released in 2004 as the lead single from the album 1 Fan a Day, which was heretofore unreleased. It is his second biggest hit, peaking at number 12 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was later included on the 2006 album N.O.R.E. y la Familia...Ya Tú Sabe. The song features Nina Sky and reggaeton artists Daddy Yankee, Gemstar and Big Mato. The song originally featured Tego Calderón in place of Daddy Yankee but was later changed for the video. However, the Tego version was released by famous reggaeton label Planet Records Italy, instead of Island Def Jam, N.O.R.E.'s original label. It's N.O.R.E.'s first venture into the increasingly popular Latin genre reggaeton. In a 2004 interview with MTV, N.O.R.E. says of the single, "I fell in love with this music. I did this joint originally for a mixtape. The Latino people haven't been spoken to in a while, since [Big] Pun died. They haven't felt like they had something proud [in hip-hop] to stand on, so being both Latin and black, I wanted to rep my Latin side for once. Why not do it with this new music, instead of doing a Spanish rap record? This is what speaks for the inner-city Latino youth." In 2004, the LP was one of the most-played singles in the US.

Nina Sky

Nina Sky is an American R&B duo composed of identical twins Nicole and Natalie Albino (born March 13, 1984 (sources differ), in Puerto Rico). Their debut single "Move Ya Body", released from their self-titled debut album in 2004, was a success, reaching number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Their second album Nicole & Natalie was released on July 31, 2012.

Early lives

The Albino sisters were born on March 13, 1984 in Puerto Rico. Natalie is a little bit older than Nicole. Their parents later moved to New York and divorced when the girls were young. The sisters grew up in Astoria, Queens in the Marine Terrace area. As a result of their stepfather working as a DJ, the twins were influenced by different types of music at an early age. By the age of 7, the twins had already written their first song, titled "Sisters". By 10, they knew that they wanted to become singers. When they were 13, they learned how to deejay and two years later they already started to have concerts in many clubs.

The twins' parents were very supportive of their daughters' ambitions as their stepfather provide guitar and drum lessons. They were taken to auditions and, on some occasions, they even performed on some showcases. The sisters wanted to devise a name of their own. In using the first two syllables of their names ("Ni" and "Na"), they came up with Nina. They then added Sky, which for them represented "the sky's the limit".

Mi Canto

Mi Canto is the debut solo digital ep of Sahrawi singer Aziza Brahim. It was released worldwide on 12 January 2009 by the French label Reaktion, reaching shortly after number one on the World music list of the web Emusic.com. Brahim, who produced the album herself, is accompanied by her band Gulili Mankoo in the recording.

In an interview during the recording of the album, Aziza Brahim remarked the fusion of the traditional Sahrawi music with other African musical traditions (wolof, bambara...) and instruments (djembe, darbuka...), and the use of modern musical structures instead of the Haul traditional ones. The song who gave name to the album, "Mi Canto", was composed years ago by Brahim and Nayim Alal. The lyrics are in Hassaniya, except the song "Hijo de las nubes", which is sung in Spanish.

Track listing

References

Gloria Estefan

Gloria María Milagrosa Fajardo García de Estefan (born September 1, 1957), known professionally as Gloria Estefan, is a Cuban-born American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. She started off her career as the leading vocalist in the group called "Miami Latin Boys" which was eventually known as Miami Sound Machine. Her breakthrough success with Conga in 1985 made her known worldwide. It won the grand prix in the 15th annual Tokyo Music Festival in Japan. This is also her signature song. In the summer of 1988 she and the band got their first number-one hit for the song "Anything For You". She has a Contralto vocal range.

In March 1990, she had a severe accident in her tour bus. She made her comeback in March 1991 with a new world tour and album called Into The Light. Estefan became a worldwide inspiration after that. Her 1993 Spanish-language album Mi Tierra won the first of her three Grammy Awards for Best Tropical Latin Album. It was the first number-one album on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart, established when it was released. It was also the first Diamond album in Spain. Many of her songs like "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You", "1-2-3", "Get On Your Feet", "Here We Are", "Coming Out of the Dark", "Bad Boy", "Oye!", "Party Time" and a remake of Vicki Sue Robinson's "Turn the Beat Around" became international hits, with chart-topping scores. Estefan has sold an estimated 75 million records worldwide, including 31.5 million in the United States alone.