Daddy Yankee led worship and preached to about 2,000 men inside Louisiana's Angola Prison, and the ministry that hosted him says dozens answered his invitation to follow Jesus.
The Puerto Rican star, whose real name is Ramón Ayala, visited the Louisiana State Penitentiary with the prison ministry God Behind Bars. After a short sermon, he invited the men to accept Christ and start "a new mentality, a new beginning." According to the ministry, dozens raised their hands and stepped forward, many of them serving life sentences. Ayala hugged the men and offered words of encouragement before the day ended in prayer.
Speaking to the crowd, he said his reason for being there was spiritual. He told them, "The worst prison has no bars, it is in the heart," and that he came because he wanted them to know they hadn't been forgotten.
The visit was first reported in late April, and clips are circulating widely again on social media.
In December 2023, Ayala announced he was leaving secular music behind to dedicate his life to Christ. Since then he has returned with faith-centered music, and the Angola visit is one of the most visible examples of that change.
The ministry says its mission is to introduce inmates to Jesus and connect them to local churches. Angola is the largest maximum-security prison in the U.S., and the ministry has hosted other faith events there, including a 2024 worship event with Lauren Daigle.
For many of the men who heard him, the message was simple: no sentence puts anyone beyond hope.
