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Don Omar: I hear people who don’t speak Spanish singing my lyrics perfectly it shows the love and dedication they put into learning my songs

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Your real name is: William Omar Landrón Rivera. Why you choose the artist name „Don Omar“?
I have to give credit where credit is due, my friend and former music partner Yaga started calling me Don Omar at the beginning of our music career.
How was the first step to your music career? Was it a hard decision for you to take a step in to the music business? (What was the reaction of your family and friends for this decision?)
I’ve had music around me growing up, when I was a kid my grandmother used to make me sing boleros for her and I wasn’t allowed to go outside and play with my friends until she was happy with my performance. Later in life I became an youth leader in my church so I used to sing in the services too and when I saw some friends singing on the streets, creating and enjoying this new music genre I knew I could do that, my family stands by my side and even though it wasn’t always easy we stuck together and now I can give back to my mother like I always wanted to.
You released your first album “The Last Don” in the year 2003. And this Album include one of the biggest summer hits: “Dale Don Dale”. This song was specially a hit in Turkey. How did feeling when you see that million of people over the world dance to your song and know your lyrics?
It still blow my minds that in that era where social media wasn’t a thing and the internet was “new” my songs could reach other cultures and break barriers, music clearly has no language and wen I hear people who don’t speak Spanish singing my lyrics perfectly it shows the love and dedication they put into learning my songs, it’s a feeling I can’t describe but I’ll always be grateful for.
We hear your songs not only in the radio stations or Tv shows or in clubs. Two songs of you was also in the film „The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift“. How was the feeling when you hear your songs in a movie?
That was a huge step in my life and career, we opened the doors in Hollywood for the Reggaeton and it changed the game, Bandoleros was featured as the soundtrack for the return of Vin Diesel to the franchise and that also opened the doors for me and Tego to be a part of the following films as actors and feature more music in Fast and Furious franchise.
 

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Danza Kuduro was also a great hit in the summer 2010. „Kuduro“ is a dance style. Why you choose this dance style for this song?
This song is a collaboration with Lucenzo, when I got the song I embraced the rhythm because it was different and invited you to dance, the Kuduro Dance comes from Angola and I knew I could take it to the next level like we did, we broke records in the Billboard Charts and the video went viral organically reaching over 500Million views when no other latin artist could dream with those numbers, we are now over 1 Billion views and counting
You took a break in to you career and go back to your home country Puerto Rico. What was the reasons for this decision?
When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico I was in the island, the lights went out, the communication systems were down and we were stranded, I had money in the bank but I couldn’t withdraw a single dollar so I was left with nothing like the rest of the people and I was reminded of the reality of Puerto Rico. I saw the devastation and the desperation my people were going through and I couldn’t bring myself to leave them there without helping so I decided to take a break and stay, an amazing group of people I call “Anonymous Heroes” helped me feed over 3 thousand families for a year straight, we also helped with medical supplies and diesel for the power plants people were using since they had no power for over a year in some rural areas.
At least you published a Single with the famous singer Farruko. How comes this cooperation? Tell us something about this song please.
Farruko and I have been friends for a long time and this is not out first collaboration.
The special thing about RAMAYAMA is the songwriter, Syko “el Terror” wrote this song before passing away in his sleep back in 2015. I wanted to honor his legacy and this was one of the last songs he wrote, it has a reggae vibe that I thought Farruko was perfect for so I decided to invite him for this project. We are reaching the 45 Million views organically in less than a month and we are already preparing what’s next.
What are your plans for the future?
New Music and music videos because I know my fans have been waiting for that and they’ll get the reggaeton they want.
I started my Retro-Evolución World Tour at the beginning of May and would love to visit Turkey to share the classics and of course new music with my Turkish fans, I’ve always wanted to visit Istanbul and learn from your culture.
I am working on some secret projects that I can’t share details just yet but I would like to invite my fans to visit www.donomar.com where I’ll be sharing exclusive content and news with them.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

DAHA FAZLA