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Daddy Yankee gets world dancing again with viral song 'Dura'

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Leila Macor

<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sGIm0-dQd8M?enablejsapi=1" width="560"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="~//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="~//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div><p>MIAMI -- It&#x27;s another viral dancing sensation. And once again, it&#x27;s from Daddy Yankee.</p><p>The Puerto Rican king of reggaeton who co-wrote &quot;Despacito&quot; has people around the world moving their hips with his latest song, &quot;Dura.&quot;</p><p>Millions of people have clicked on online videos inspired by &quot;Dura&quot; as aspiring dancers around the world -- from fresh-faced children to top models to endearing elderly people -- find their groove, with varying degrees of skill or stiffness.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;m beyond honored and feel very blessed. You make music for an audience,&quot; Daddy Yankee told AFP. &quot;And the audience has made this song in their own organic, spontaneous way.&quot;</p><p>Daddy Yankee helped bring reggaeton -- a Latin dance music, with roots in Jamaican dancehall and the style of hip-hop, that was historically associated with the marginalized Afro-Puerto Rican community -- to a global audience starting with his 2004 hit &quot;Gasolina.&quot;</p><p>But &quot;Dura&quot; marks a fresh turn in the 41-year-old singer and rapper&#x27;s career as the song has taken off based largely on how fans appropriate it.</p><p>&quot;Why have so many people -- even babies -- liked it?&quot; he asked rhetorically. &quot;Well, some things you can&#x27;t explain. It&#x27;s the magic of music, a magic that just happens and that you can&#x27;t understand.&quot;</p><p>He has one theory. &quot;Dura,&quot; he said, harks back to &quot;the rhythm and nostalgia for music of the late 1980s and early 1990s, that essence of reggae that inspired reggaeton.&quot;</p><div><strong>No excuse not to dance</strong></div><p>Daddy Yankee, whose real name is Ramon Luis Ayala, released &quot;Dura&quot; on January 18. The next day, Colombian model Andrea Valdiri posted a video on Instagram, barefoot in sweatpants and a loose white top, as she danced to &quot;Dura&quot; with her hands rubbing sensually around her body.</p><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/BeJTL-qhjZb/" data-instgrm-version="8" style="background:#FFF;border:0;border-radius:3px;box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15);margin:1px;max-width:658px;padding:0;width:calc(100% - 2px)"><div style="padding:8px"><div style="background:#F8F8F8;line-height:0;margin-top:40px;padding:62.5% 0;text-align:center;width:100%"><div style="background:url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAACwAAAAsCAMAAAApWqozAAAABGdBTUEAALGPC/xhBQAAAAFzUkdCAK7OHOkAAAAMUExURczMzPf399fX1+bm5mzY9AMAAADiSURBVDjLvZXbEsMgCES5/P8/t9FuRVCRmU73JWlzosgSIIZURCjo/ad+EQJJB4Hv8BFt+IDpQoCx1wjOSBFhh2XssxEIYn3ulI/6MNReE07UIWJEv8UEOWDS88LY97kqyTliJKKtuYBbruAyVh5wOHiXmpi5we58Ek028czwyuQdLKPG1Bkb4NnM+VeAnfHqn1k4+GPT6uGQcvu2h2OVuIf/gWUFyy8OWEpdyZSa3aVCqpVoVvzZZ2VTnn2wU8qzVjDDetO90GSy9mVLqtgYSy231MxrY6I2gGqjrTY0L8fxCxfCBbhWrsYYAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC);display:block;height:44px;margin:0 auto -44px;position:relative;top:-22px;width:44px"> </div></div><p style="color:#c9c8cd;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:17px;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:8px;overflow:hidden;padding:8px 0 7px;text-align:center;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BeJTL-qhjZb/" style="color:#c9c8cd;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;font-style:normal;font-weight:normal;line-height:17px;text-decoration:none" target="_blank">A post shared by 👑vive La Vida..🙏 (@valdiriandreo)</a> on <time dateTime="2018-01-19T21:02:53+00:00" style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:17px">Jan 19, 2018 at 1:02pm PST</time></p></div></blockquote><div><script async="" defer="" src="https://www.instagram.com/embed.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div><p>The video has been viewed nearly nine million times on her Instagram account and in Daddy Yankee&#x27;s repost. It also set off a rush of new homemade interpretations of the song -- posted under hashtag #DuraChallenge. </p><p>Daddy Yankee&#x27;s original video has been seen nearly 200 million times on YouTube.</p><p>More recently, the 25-year-old Valdiri has been eclipsed as the #DuraChallenge star by a nonagenarian.</p><p>Rachel Phillipsen, a 90-year-old New Yorker of Puerto Rican origin, follows a zumba instructor with impressive rhythm and coordination as Daddy Yankee sings in Spanish, &quot;I like how you move that ram-pam-pam.&quot; The video has generated 5.5 million clicks.</p><p>&quot;There are no excuses not to dance. The excuse is all in your mind,&quot; the zumba instructor, Rina Elena Martinez (@rina_25), told AFP. The Venezuelan appears in the video shot in a gym in Miami.</p><p>Daddy Yankee agreed. &quot;The 90-year-old grandmother was phenomenal,&quot; he said, adding: &quot;No doubt that video gives encouragement to the whole world.&quot;</p><p>Celebrities who have taken the #DuraChallenge include Venezuelan model Diosa Canales, Dominican reggaeton singer Natti Natasha and the Puerto Rican former Miss Universe Zuleyka Rivera, who also appeared in the &quot;Despacito&quot; video.</p><div><strong>&#x27;You&#x27;re one tough mama&#x27;</strong></div><p>&quot;Dura,&quot; which literally means &quot;hard&quot; but could also mean &quot;hot&quot; when it comes to appearance, is an ode to a beautiful woman.</p><p>&quot;You&#x27;re one tough mama,&quot; Daddy Yankee sings, with lines such as &quot;If it&#x27;s a crime to be so beautiful / I&#x27;ll arrest you in my bed and put you in handcuffs.&quot;</p><p>Musically, the song returns to early reggaeton without the pop melodies that mega-stars such as Shakira, Enrique Iglesias or &quot;Despacito&quot; co-writer Luis Fonsi deployed to bring the genre to the anglo pop world.</p><p>In a retro video, Daddy Yankee and his cohorts dance around well-trodden streets covered with vibrant street art. Women, who so often take passive roles in highly sexual songs, assume the lead in showing their moves.</p><p>&quot;We were inspired by the bright colors of the &#x27;90s and a bit of the era&#x27;s fashion. I wanted to make this fun and to show that the song could empower women,&quot; Daddy Yankee said.</p><p>The video was directed by Carlos Perez, the Puerto Rican who shot &quot;Despacito&quot; and has worked with Ricky Martin and Marc Anthony.</p><p>&quot;Despacito&quot; also spawned spoofs and has made history as the most-watched video on YouTube with more than 4.8 billion views.</p><p>Helped by a remix featuring Justin Bieber, &quot;Despacito&quot; tied a record by spending 16 weeks on top of the benchmark Billboard singles chart in the United States -- a major feat in a country where non-English songs rarely fare well.</p><p>&quot;Dura&quot; as of Friday was number 10 on Spotify&#x27;s global singles chart and number one in several Latin American countries.</p><p>© Agence France-Presse<br/> </p>

<p>It's another viral dancing sensation. And once again, it's from Daddy Yankee.</p>