All Photographs by Stephanie Tacy
How do you say goodbye to the King of Reggaetón? To the man who made Reggaetón a worldwide genre? To the man who taught us how to shake our hips to the legendary song “Gasolina”? I decided that the best way to show two decade’s worth of love and appreciation for his music was to go see him live for my first time and last time.
Daddy Yankee said his goodbye to his fans with his 4-month “La Última Vuelta”, or “The Last Tour”, hitting 54 cities in 15 countries across the American continents. The last show in the tour was December 22nd in Miami, Florida.
I was able to see his farewell tour in the newly built multi-purpose arena, the Moody Center, in Austin, Texas. The Moody Center is Austin’s largest concert venue, holding 15,000+ seats, as well as hosting The University of Texas Women’s and Men’s basketball games.
Starting the show off with “Campeon”, the first song on his latest album, Legendaddy, he reminds his fans (who need no reminder) that he is indeed the champion, the legend, the boss of Reggaetón and that after achieving G.O.A.T status, he is ready to retire. The first verse of “Campeon” roughly translates to:
I am a legend, The Boss, the force
Ask anywhere (Boss, boss, boss!)
I’m a legend, I have no reverse
I’m going against whoever (LEGENDADDY, fire!)
I came from where there is almost nothing (Weh)
The street, the crib, the criminal (Woh)
And I became the machine
Champion, champion, champion I am
I swore that nobody was going to stop me (Weh)
Undefeated we continue until the end (Woh)
I’m all ready, I can retire
Champion, champion, champion I am…
The crowd came hyped and everyone kept the party going. For two hours, we danced perreo and sang along to Daddy Yankee’s discography of hit after hit. We slipped into a state of nostalgia, remembering all the times we danced to these songs at high school dances, at college parties, at home with friends, and last month at the club. The dream ended when he played the last song of the night, Gasolina.
The 3-section screen showed visuals for each song, flanked on each side by a close up of Daddy Yankee, and sometimes his dancers. The visuals ranged from an old-school computer, to a barrio, to a Daddy Yankee avatar. The screen also set off light displays and pyrotechnics. Daddy Yankee and his dancers were situated below the screens. I would have liked to see more close ups of the dancers. I can only assume they were 🔥 the entire show.
While this may have been his last tour (let’s see if he actually stays retired), we’ll always keep Daddy Yankee playing on our Spotify playlists and shaking our hips to his hits like “Gasolina”, “Rompe”, “Lo Que Pasó, Pasó”, “Con Calma,” and “Yo Voy.”
Disclaimer:
While this guera has a huge appreciation for Daddy Yankee and the musical genre of Reggaetón, I’d like to acknowledge that as a non-Spanish speaker and non-hispanic person, my appreciation may not have the same cultural understanding or depth as someone from the Hispanic community but this review was written with love. The beauty of music is that on a certain level it transcends language, culture, and country and invites everyone around the world to become fans.
Here are some videos I captured of special moments during the night on my phone:
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