Don Omar

The King - Don Omar About Don Omar Don Omar King of Kings On the cover of his new album, King of Kings, rapper/singer Don Omar is wearing a medieval outfit, with his hands clutching a sword whose hilt ends in a microphone. ..I..m a warrior with the sword of faith, standing in my land of salvation,.. said Don Omar. ..I..m a warrior who you can see is triumphant, but I..m still going to battle with whatever happens... King of Kings is clearly triumphant: it received a 2006 Latin Grammy nomination for ..Best Urban Music Album,.. maintained the number one spot on Billboard..s ..Top Latin Albums.. chart for 15 consecutive weeks, debuted at ..7 on Billboard..s ..Top 200,.. and has already sold well over 500,000 copies worldwide. ..Angelitos,.. the first single from the album, reached ..1 on the Billboard Latin Charts. The album has also held the highest position ever by an urban artist on Spain..s sales charts, and ..Angelitos.. held the number one most downloaded ringtone spot in Spain. Don Omar is one of those dynamic voices that seem to rise above the rest. Although he is the king of reggaetón, he sees himself as a constant innovator and a versatile Urban Latin artist. He is a top-flight rapper who can hold his own with anyone in terms of flow, but he is also a devotee of melody, harmony, the use of real instrumentation, and the spectacle of a live show. He loves and draws influence from salsa, merengue, bachata, bolero, and even rock. Now, with his new album, Don Omar puts it all together: he raps, he dances, he sings, and he ascends to take his rightful place on the throne. King of Kings is building on the impressive foundation set by Don Omar..s previous albums, ..The Last Don.. and ..The Last Don Live,.. which sold over 1 million copies combined worldwide. He was the first reggaetón rapper to sell out Puerto Rico..s Roberto Clemente Coliseum and has enjoyed success touring throughout Europe and Latin America. He has received such prestigious awards as ..Latin Pop Album of the Year.. and ..Best New Artist.. from the Billboard Latin Music Awards in 2004, and was nominated for a 2006 American Music Award for ..Favorite Latin Artist... His song ..Dale Don Dale.. is a calling card for reggaetón fans worldwide. For Don Omar, music was something he had to struggle to get involved with. Born and raised in an urban ghetto in metropolitan San Juan, Don Omar, née William Omar Landrón, always had a touch of musical royalty in his blood. ..My grandfather was a musician,.. he said, ..But I was so rebellious when I was young that I saw music as something imposed by my grandfather and that everyone in the house had to be a musician, too... Don Omar grew up in Villa Palmeras, a rough section of the San Juan area, where at age seven, he saw the first murder of his life. He moved on to what he described as a ..problematic adolescence... A close friend was killed before his eyes during a shootout, and he made the decision to get involved with a church in nearby Bayamón. ..Everything started to change,.. said Don Omar, who formed a Christian rap band with people he met at the church. ..I was in the chorus for three years. That..s where I started to take music classes and find a taste for music... By the age of 21, Don Omar was collaborating with a pastor of a church with 800 members. People were attracted to the church because of his band and doors began to open. Suddenly Don Omar had become a reggaetón artist. He started to sing with MC Yaga (of Yaga & Mackie fame). ..My circle of friends was Yaga, Master Joe, DJ Frank,.. said Don Omar. In the early years of this decade, Don Omar began to collaborate with artists in compilations albums, and then he met stars of the moment, Héctor and Tito, who asked him to write lyrics for their smash 2002 album ..A la Reconquista... Juan Vidal, president of their label VI Music recognized Omar..s talent and got him involved with more compilations, and he began to work with established stars like Tempo and Daddy Yankee. Don Omar has always been a lover of poetry and ballads, and during this time he wrote a song called ..Muñecas de Porcelana,.. and presented it to a company executive, who made the final decision to sign him to a contract. ..I have a rocker..s soul,.. said Don Omar. ..And I told them, ..I brought you a song that..s not reggaetón, so how are you going to sign me?.. And they said, ..we..ll make it work..... The rest, of course, was history. ..The Last Don.. became one of the most important early reggaetón albums; Don Omar..s historic two-night stand at the Roberto Clemente coliseum made promoters take the genre seriously, and a concert at Ponce..s legendary Tuque drag-racing spot drew over 100,000 fans. A new genre was born. ..Muñecas de Porcelana,.. a song about two women in love, finally made it onto King of Kings, and it..s a statement about Don Omar..s commitment to openness and truth as well as his desire to expand the boundaries of the genre. ..I wanted to show more lyrics, more melody, work with the ear of the fans,.. said Don Omar. King of Kings does feature its share of ballads, like ..Muñecas,.. ..Tu No Sabes,.. ..Angelitos,.. and ..Infieles... But that doesn..t mean that Don Omar stops rocking out to reggaetón..s seductive dance rhythm.