Awards

Daddy Yankee on His Inspiring & 'Powerful' Latin AMAs Performance Honoring Cancer Survivors (Exclusive)

By Liz Calvario‍ 10:00 AM PDT, October 25, 2018

Daddy Yankee has something very special planned for the 2018 Latin American Music Awards.

The 41-year-old reggaetonero will be honored at Thursday's Latin AMAs with the Icon Award, as well as give a powerful performance of his song, "Yo Contra Ti." The song -- featuring the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, who will also accompany him on stage during the awards ceremony -- is dedicated to all breast cancer survivors.

ET's Deidre Behar caught up with Yankee after his rehearsals in Los Angeles on Wednesday, where he detailed how important this performance will be.

"We're gonna bring a message of hope and inspiration to all the cancer survivors around the world," Yankee explained. "You can't miss that one, it's going to be a powerful performance."

While creating the song, the "Dura" singer had the opportunity to sit down with women who are battling cancer, an experience he says "was very emotional."

"It was hard for me. Talking to them, I was trying to contain myself," he shared. "Thanks to their words, I came up with the inspiration to make the song. It's a powerful song, and the most important thing is that it's a message that can inspire them and motivate them to go through their tests in life and trying to face cancer in a different way."

The impact that this experience had on him made him grateful for "the little things that we have in life that we don't pay attention to it. Those little things are very important, like family, your children, your friends, trying to take every second and make every second count in life."

As for getting the chance to work with his native country's orchestra, Yankee said, "For me that was on my bucket list, to make a collaboration with Puerto Rico Orchestra and I did it. That was one of my biggest challenges in music."

The Latin AMAs will be a big night for Yankee who, aside from his impactful performance, will be recognized with the Icon Award.

"It's such a great honor and I feel blessed, honestly, I feel blessed," he expressed, adding that he hadn't written a speech. "I don't write my speech, I speak from the heart."

"It's a big award, but I think one of the things that people connect with DY is that I'm natural," he continued. "So I'm just gonna live in the moment, and everything I got in my heart, I will express it in that moment."

Earlier this week. ET also caught up with Maluma, where he revealed that his performance that night will be all about girl power. Watch below to hear what he said.

The Latin AMAs airs Thursday, Oct. 25 at 8 p.m. ET on Telemundo.

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