Daddy Yankee and Don Omar End Years-Long Feud: Always ‘Room for Forgiveness’
The gods of reggaeton have made peace. On Tuesday, Don Omar and Dadd Yankee shared sweet Instagram posts announcing that the longtime rivals had ended their on-and-off feud following a conversation “from the heart.”
“Today we close the book that kept the best chapters of our controversial rivalry. Thank you for your words and for listening to mine, which came from the heart too,” Omar wrote in Spanish. “I wish you and your family the best. Thank you for your competitive spirit and admirable discipline, but even more so, thank you for what you did for our music.”
“Thank you for collaborating and for competing because I did it with a titan. I am left with the good memories, the laughter, the dreams together, and with the desire for one last round with such a great opponent,” he added. “We will see each other again soon because I owe you a hug and thank you in person.”
Omar ended his note: “Long live King Daddy.”
Yankee later shared a statement of his own acknowledging how Omar has done “great things for this genre.”
“Today I feel calm knowing that [the rivalry] is behind us, and we are an example of how we may have differences but there will always be room for forgiveness,” Yankee wrote. “You have been a great rival and I will never stop recognizing everything you’ve done for our movement.”
The reconciliation between the two Latin music legends comes just weeks after Daddy Yankee performed his final show at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico and shared that he will dedicate his life to Christianity. In his post, he said he was following the “greatest example of what Jesus does.”
“I feel calm and at peace knowing that today we leave behind the controversies between two performers who raised the Puerto Rican flag high,” Yankee wrote, before adding, “God bless you, your family and all your faithful followers.”
Yankee and Omar had been beefing since reggaeton’s heyday in the 2000s. It’s unclear exactly how the rivalry started, though they both were ruling the reggaeton space when it did. Some speculate it has to do with behind-the-scenes issues related to competing opportunities and features on songs. Others think it was just their egos.
Despite their rivalry, the artists collaborated multiple times over the years, including 2003’s “Gata Gangster” and “La Noche Está Buena” with Hector “El Father,” and later on “Yo Soy de Aquí” in 2015, followed by “Hasta Abajo Remix” in 2020.
The duo even went on tour together in 2016, but their issues resurfaced last year after Omar accused Yankee’s close friend, manager Raphy Pina, of working with Yankee to sabotage his part of the show, including disconnecting sound equipment when he hit the stage during a show in Vegas.
He also accused Pina of buying off news outlets to write positive reviews of Yankee’s part of the trek. Pina, who’s currently in prison, shared a video where he defended himself and shot back at Omar for not “rehears[ing] your show.” Yankee also fired back in an Alofoke RadioShow interview.
Yankee sat down for a Rolling Stone cover story last September to speak about the end of his career in reggaeton, and how he planned to move forward from his fructiferous career. He announced that he was retiring from music altogether in 2022. “I think that’s the coolest part. There’s a mystery there that I need to discover, and it’s what makes me the most excited,” he said at the time. “I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
This story was updated at 11:15 p.m. ET to include Daddy Yankee’s statement.