"Gasoline" by Daddy Yankee lights up the US National Song Registry: it is the first reggaeton to reach the list

( ) – Daddy Yankee continues to cement his status as a music legend.

The Library of Congress of the United States included his hit “Gasolina” in the National Song Registry, a distinction that is also historical since it It is the first reggaeton song to enter the registry.

Total there were 25 themes included in the list, among which are:

• “Imagine” by John Lennon
• “Stairway to Heaven” by Led Zeppelin
• Madonna’s “Like a Virgin”
• “All I Want for Christmas is You” by Mariah Carey
• The official theme of the video game Super Mario Bros.

Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina” is a ‘treasure worth preserving’

The person in charge of the selection was the US Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden. In its Web pagethe Library of Congress says the tracks are “audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical, or aesthetic significance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage.”

The Library of Congress also said that the list of selected songs preserves history and “reflects the diverse culture” of the United States.

On his Instagram account, Daddy Yankee rescued the humble origins of the subject.

“For that kid who grew up in Santurce, a song Gasoline who was born in a neighborhood of Puerto Rico, and is recognized by the Library of Congress as one of the songs that transformed culture, changed musical history in the world and the US is something I never dreamed of”, said the interpreter.

“The most beautiful thing was in . When you do things with love, passion, determination and discipline, and to all this you add the support of all my beautiful people for more than three decades, everything you dream of can be possible,” added Daddy Yankee.

The hit was considered among 1,100 songs nominated for inclusion on the record, the Library of Congress said in a statement.

A reggaeton icon

The theme is part of “Barrio Fino” (2004), the third studio album by Daddy Yankee. Although the singer was already known in Puerto Rico, the rest of the world turned its gaze to him thanks to “Gasolina”, the first single from that album.

In its beginnings, the song did not have an open acceptance on commercial radio in the United States, says Leila Cobo, director of content for Billboard Latino, in her book “La Fórmula ‘Despacito’: The hits of Latin music told by its artists”.

“The song didn’t go past No. 17 on Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart because very few -language stations played urban music at that time,” Cobo explains in the publication.

The song was written by Daddy Yankee and Eddie Dee, and produced by Luny Tunes in their home studio.

The impact was such that, almost 20 years after its release, the song is considered by experts as one of the flagships of reggaeton.

But history was not always like this. In “The formula ‘Despacito’”, Daddy Yankee said that almost nobody believed in the song, not even his producers, since people were used to the more classic sound of reggaeton.

The origins of Daddy Yankee’s “Gasolina”

Daddy Yankee says that the idea for the song was born after hearing a man yell at a woman “How do you like gasoline!” This is a story that he has replicated in interviews and even in concerts.

Yankee told Rolling Stone magazine on his podcast “Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums” that “give him more gasoline is a popular phrase in Puerto Rico to tell a girl that you like to go to parties, it’s like ‘mommy you like gasoline, you love to go out a lot! It’s that energy of a girl who loves to have fun.”

During his concert in Atlanta in August 2022, Daddy Yankee said before performing the song that “Gasolina” is the “song that changed the game forever. Thanks to this topic we have a worldwide movement”.

“This song every time I release it, that I sing it, it seems that I had it thrown away yesterday. That this song would have come out yesterday, ”added the interpreter.

The video clip for “Gasolina” accumulates 83 million views on YouTube. As such, the audio of the hit exceeds 101 million views on YouTube and on Spotify it exceeds 571.9 million views.

A before and after “Barrio Fino”

The debut album was the first reggaeton record to reach number one on Billboard’s top-selling Latin albums chart, Cobo said in his book. Additionally, it was the best-selling Latin album of the 2000s.

Also, “Gasolina” was the first reggaeton song to be nominated in the Record of the Year category of the 2005 Latin Grammys.

“(The) Gasoline it sparked a massive change for reggaeton with its crossover appeal from Latin radio to broad audiences. The appeal of Gasoline it was so big that it even caused some radio stations to switch formats from English to to take advantage of this revolution,” the National Song Registry said in a statement.

“Barrio Fino was an album that completely changed the urban trend,” Yankee told Leila Cobo in “La formula ‘Despacito’”.

The disk is part of the list of 500 Best Albums in History from Rolling Stone magazine. The production received the Latin Grammy in 2005 for best urban music album.

The album received the certification of 6 multi-platinum albums from the RIAA, the Recording Industry Association of the United States, on February 7, 2005.

In 2020, Daddy Yankee announced that he was retiring from music and he did it in style: he released the album legendaddy and a world tour with which he personally said goodbye to each of his followers.

In his long career, Daddy Yankee has sold more than 30 million records.