Daddy Yankee announced his retirement during his farewell concert in Puerto Rico on Sunday night by declaring that he will devote his life to Christianity.
The rapper and singer first told fans of his impending retirement in 2022, closing out his career with the album “Legendaddy” and a farewell tour titled La Última Vuelta (“The Last Lap”). His announcement came at the end of the final show of the tour’s final concert series — dubbed La Meta (“The Goal”) — which was also livestreamed for fans who couldn’t attend the concert.
“This day for me is the most important day of my life,” Yankee said in Spanish, according to NBC. “I want to share it with you because living a life of success is not the same as living a life with purpose.”
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The six-time Latin Grammy winner, known best for his international hit “Gasolina,” quoted the Gospel of Matthew to the sold-out crowd: “What good will it be for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”
Yankee expressed his deep connection to his faith with passion.
“That is why tonight, I recognize, and I am not ashamed to tell the whole world, that Jesus lives in me and that I will live for him,” he said.
Quedan poco más de 7 horas para el
Cierre de #LaMeta y el livestream . https://t.co/n8ZWfVOpf3 pic.twitter.com/qmHwcYlX5e— Daddy Yankee (@daddy_yankee) December 3, 2023
He told fans he was ready to embark on “a new beginning” and that from now on he will go by his birth name, Ramón Luis Ayala Rodríguez. (RELATED: Nicolas Cage Says He’s Ready To Call It Quits On Hollywood — And He Knows Just How Many Movies He’s Got Left)
“All the tools that I have in my possession such as music, social networks, platforms, a microphone — everything that Jesus gave me — is now for his kingdom,” he said, encouraging “all the people who followed me” to “follow Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth and the life.”