Ricky Martin Informations

Enrique Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), better known as Ricky Martin is a Puerto Rican singer, actor and author who is widely regarded as the "King of Latin Pop". He holds dual American and Spanish citizenship, and began his career at age 12 with the all-boy pop group Menudo. After five years with the group, he released several Spanish-language solo albums throughout the 1990s. Since the beginning of his solo career in 1991, Ricky Martin has sold over 70 million albums, making him one of the best-selling Latin music artists of all time. He also acted on stage and on TV in Mexico, where he achieved modest stardom. In 1994, he appeared on the US TV soap opera General Hospital, playing a Puerto Rican singer. He also ranks among the most influential Latin artists of all time.

In early 1999, after releasing several albums in Spanish, Martin performed "The Cup of Life" at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards show, which became a catalyst in bringing Latin pop to the forefront of the U.S. music scene. Following its success, Martin released "Livin' la Vida Loca", which helped him attain enormous success worldwide; it is generally seen as the song that began the Latin pop explosion of 1999 and made the transition easier for other Spanish-speaking artists to move into the English-speaking market. His first English-language album (also titled Ricky Martin), has sold 15 million copies and it's his best selling album to date. His other studio albums include: Me Amarás (1993), A Medio Vivir (1995), Vuelve (1998), Sound Loaded (2000), Almas del Silencio (2003), Life (2005), Música + Alma + Sexo (2011), and A Quien Quiera Escuchar (2015). In 2018, he portrayed Antonio D'Amico on The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story for which he received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.

Martin was born on December 24, 1971, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Nereida Morales, an accountant, and Enrique Martín Negroni (son of Enrique Martín and Iraida Negroni Arizmendi), a psychologist. The youngest of three children on his mother's side and oldest of four children on his father's side, he has four brothers and one sister. His parents divorced when he was two years old, and Martin spent much of his childhood shifting between his father's home in the suburbs of University Gardens, a suburban middle-class neighborhood of San Juan, and his paternal grandmother's house nearby. Martin has two older maternal half-brothers, Fernando and Ángel Fernández, two younger paternal half-brothers, Eric and Daniel Martín, and a younger paternal half-sister, Vanessa Martín. Martin, in an interview with newspaper ABC, described his origins as Spanish, of Basque and Canarian descent and that the Martíns left Spain for Puerto Rico in 1779. He also has some Corsican heritage through his paternal grandmother.

Martin grew up in a Roman Catholic home and was an altar boy throughout his childhood. He began singing at age 6, using wooden kitchen spoons as pretend microphones; he often interpreted songs by Menudo[clarify] to as well as English-language rock groups such as Led Zeppelin, Journey, and REO Speedwagon. His mother's side of the family was musically inclined, and his maternal grandfather was a poet, which inspired young Martin to write songs. Martin later reflected on his time spent with his family as a child: "Every time I find myself in front of an audience, be it twenty people or one hundred thousand, once again I feel the energy that consumed me back at the family gatherings of my youth." After discovering, with his father, a newspaper advertisement about auditions for commercials, 9-year-old Martin began appearing in Puerto Rican television commercials for products such as soft drinks, toothpaste, and restaurants. In a year and a half, he starred in 11 commercials.

After achieving modest fame in Puerto Rico for his work in television commercials, Martin auditioned for membership in the Puerto Rican boy band Menudo. Although the executives enjoyed his dancing and singing at his first two auditions, Martin was rejected because he was too short. By the third audition, his persistence impressed executives, and in 1984, 12-year-old Martin became a member. A month after joining Menudo, he made his debut performance with the group at the Luis A. Ferré Performing Arts Center in San Juan. During this performance, he inadvertently disobeyed the choreography by walking around the stage, when it was planned that he would stay still, and was chastised by the band manager after the show: "The mistake was such a big deal that from that moment on, never again did I move when I wasn't supposed to move...That was the discipline of Menudo: You either did things the way you were told or you were not part of the group." The song "Asignatura Pendiente" from Almas del Silencio (2003) was inspired by the first time Martin left Puerto Rico to tour with Menudo.

Although Martin enjoyed traveling and performing onstage with Menudo, he found the band's busy schedule and strict management exhausting, and later reflected that the experience "cost" him his childhood. He considered leaving the group while on tour in Brazil, but ultimately decided to stay out of fear of media backlash and being sued for breach of contract. Martin also began struggling with his sexuality, noting the stark contrast between his status as a sex symbol and his own emotions. Despite this, Martin acknowledged his "opportunity to have so many amazing experiences with so many amazing people" during his time with the group.

He developed an interest in philanthropy when the group became UNICEF ambassadors, often working with impoverished children in third world countries. His experiences as an ambassador affected him greatly and inspired him to continue working with charities later in life.

By 1987, Menudo's record sales began to decline, and the group changed its image, adopting an edgier look and performing more rock-influenced songs. The band released the album Somos Los Hijos del Rock in Spanish, and to appeal to the Menudo's Filipino fanbase, the group released In Action, recording songs in both English and Tagalog.

After recording 11 albums with the group, Martin left Menudo in July 1989, at age 17, hoping to rest and evaluate his career path. He performed his final show with the group at the same venue where he'd performed his first performance as a member. Martin returned to Puerto Rico to graduate from high school, and 13 days after turning 18, he moved to New York City to celebrate his financial independence; since he was a minor during his time as a member of Menudo, Martin was not allowed to access his own bank accounts. He was accepted into New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, but months before classes began, Martin dropped out and moved to Mexico City to perform in the play Mama Ama el Rock (Mom Loves Rock).

While he was performing onstage in Mama Ama el Rock, a producer in the audience took notice of Martin's acting and offered him a role in the Mexican telenovela Alcanzar una estrella after the show. He also joined the cast for the second season of the show, titled Alcanzar una estrella II. A film based on the TV series, titled Más que alcanzar una estrella, was also produced in which Martin starred and in 1993 earned an El Heraldo Award for his role. The show centered around a fictional musical group called Muñecos de Papel, in which Martin played Pablo Loredo, one of the six members; the group toured several cities in Mexico and recorded two albums. Although he had hoped to take a break from touring after Menudo, Martin enjoyed the experience because he got along with the other members well.

In 1990, Martin was signed to Sony Discos, the Sony Music Entertainment's Latin imprint. Eager to make his first solo album, Martin signed the contract without reading it and inadvertently signed a deal in which he would only be awarded one cent of royalties for each album sold. Despite viewing the contract as unfair, Martin referred to the record as "the start of something phenomenal" for him. After working "around the clock" to finish filming Alcanzar una estrella II and recording music, Martin released his debut solo album, the Spanish-language Ricky Martin, in November 1991.Ricky Martin included the singles: "Fuego Contra Fuego" and "El Amor de Mi Vida". "Fuego Contra Fuego" was certified Gold in Mexico, Argentina, Puerto Rico, and the United States. To promote the album, Martin toured throughout Latin America, which the singer referred to as "an indescribable feeling, almost like coming home."

After the success of Ricky Martin and its subsequent tour, Martin's record company met him with acclaimed producer Juan Carlos Calderón on his second solo album, Me Amarás. Although Martin felt "very grateful" for the opportunity to work with Calderón, he noted, "I always felt that that record was more his than mine." Released in May 1993, Me Amarás features a Spanish-language cover of the Laura Branigan song "Self Control", titled "Que Dia Es Hoy". In his review, Alex Henderson of AllMusic wrote, "The CD isn't without its pleasures...but on the whole, Me Amarás is too glossy, too calculated, and much too contrived for its own good."

In 1994, Martin's agent encouraged him to move to Los Angeles to act in an American sitcom called Getting By. The show was canceled after two seasons, but soon afterward, Martin was given the role of singer/bartender Miguel Morez on the soap opera General Hospital. Martin felt he lacked chemistry with the rest of the General Hospital cast and observed that people treated him differently because of his Puerto Rican accent. At the time, it was relatively uncommon for Hispanic people to appear on American television, and people suggested that he take accent reduction classes, which he refused. It was during this time, however, that Martin began his first committed relationship with a man. He "stopped fearing his sexuality", and soon came out to his mother, who was supportive of him. However, after the relationship ended, Martin "locked [his] feelings even deeper inside", and began dating women again. He recalled, "I already felt it was hard to be a Latino in Hollywood; what could have been more difficult than being Latino and gay?"

In 1995, Martin refocused on his music career, and began work on his third album, A Medio Vivir. The first single, the ballad "Te Extraño, Te Olvido, Te Amo", written by the producer of Lynda Thomas, Carlos Lara, was reminiscent of his earlier work. With the song, Martin furthered his expansion from Latin American and Spanish-speaking audiences to the European and Asian markets. However, the record also made a shift from his traditional ballad-style compositions to a more risky fusion of music centered around traditional Latin sounds, epitomized by the song "Maria". Taken aback by the starkly different musical style, record label executives felt that the song would ruin Martin's career. Despite this, "Maria" was chosen as the album's second single, and became a breakthrough hit, reaching number one in France, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Finland, Italy, Turkey, and the entire continent of South America. With A Medio Vivir, Martin was credited, along with singers Chayanne and Marc Anthony, for popularizing the music of Puerto Rico in Spain. The album has sold over 3 million copies worldwide.

In a 1996 interview with The Miami Herald, Martin expressed an interest in performing on Broadway. Days after the interview was released Martin received a phone call from producer Richard Jay-Alexander, offering him the role of Marius Pontmercy in the play Les Misérables. After the conclusion of a worldwide tour in support of A Medio Vivir, Martin returned to New York to appear in the play in an eleven-week run. He greatly enjoyed the experience, calling his time in the play an "honor" and "the role of [his] life". Martin continued to tour after the conclusion of the show's run, and noted that his audiences were growing in both size and enthusiasm. In 1997, Martin was invited to the prestigious Sanremo Music Festival in Sanremo, Italy. After landing in Milan, Martin's scheduled helicopter trip to Sanremo had to be postponed due to poor weather conditions. Hoping to arrive at the festival on time, Martin and his crew drove through the mountainous terrain at over 120 miles per hour. The car then turned too quickly and flipped over. However, "none of us had more than a couple of scratches and bruises" and he arrived at the festival on time by taxi later that day. In the summer of 1997, Martin embarked on a tour of Spain, performing 45 shows in 36 cities.

While on tour, Martin returned to the studio to record his fourth album, Vuelve (1998). He called the experience of touring and recording at the same time "brutal and incredibly intense". As he was finishing the record, the singer was contacted by FIFA to write a song for the 1998 World Cup; Martin subsequently wrote "La copa de la vida" with K. C. Porter and Draco Rosa. He performed the song at the World Cup final in the Stade de France on July 12, 1998. The performance, which was broadcast to over a billion viewers in 187 countries, was described as a "global moment for Latin pop". "La copa de la vida" reached No. 1 on the charts around the world and went gold and platinum in various countries. It was awarded Pop Song of the Year at the 1999 Lo Nuestro Awards. The title track and the ballad "Perdido Sin Tí" both hit number one on the Hot Latin Songs. Further singles included: "La Bomba", "Por Arriba, Por Abajo" and "Corazonado". Vuelve spent twenty-six weeks at number one on the Billboard Top Latin Albums. It became Martin's first top forty album on the Billboard 200 in the United States, where it was certified platinum by the RIAA. The album also went to number one in Spain and Norway, and sold over eight million copies worldwide.

Martin was nominated for his first Grammy Award for Vuelve in the category of Best Latin Pop Album, and was booked to sing on the 41st Annual Grammy Awards live TV broadcast. His acclaimed performance of "La copa de la vida" earned Martin an unexpected standing ovation and introduced him to the mainstream American audience. Being aware of performing on the Grammy, he said that:"The excitement is more than being nominated for the award. The audience in front of me are people who are hard to please. Sting! Madonna! Luciano Pavarotti! To get the acceptance of your peers really means a lot." Martin won the Grammy Award later that evening, and even superstars Madonna and Sting went backstage to congratulate him. His appearance sparked nationwide interest in Latin music. Writing for Billboard on April 24, 1999, Michael Paoletta noted, "In the weeks since [the performance], it seems like every record label exec has been in a heated search for the next Latin hottie."

After receiving commercial success throughout Asia, Europe, and Latin America, Martin prepared his first English album in 1999 in an attempt to cross over to the United States market. The self-titled album, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and sold 661,000 copies in its first week of release, became the most successful album debut on the Billboard charts by a Hispanic artist. It contained material by writers and producers such as Desmond Child, Diane Warren, William Orbit, George Noriega and his longtime childhood friend Draco Rosa. The album also featured special guests: Madonna on the Spanish-English duet "Be Careful (Cuidado con mi Corazón)" and Sertab Erener on "Private Emotion". Two weeks after the album's release, Martin was featured on the cover of Time with the title "Latin Music Goes Pop!". Before the album's release, Janet Jackson collaborated with Ricky Martin for the Latin American version of "Ask for More", a promotional single and commercial released as part of an advertising campaign for soft drink company Pepsi.

The first and most prominent single was "Livin' la Vida Loca", which reached number one in many countries around the world, including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland and New Zealand. "Livin' la Vida Loca" is Ricky Martin's biggest hit. The video for "Livin 'La Vida Loca" was directed by Wayne Isham and starring model Nina Moric. It was followed by "She's All I Ever Had" which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Both tracks peaked at number one on the Hot Latin Songs. "Livin' la Vida Loca" is generally seen as the song that began the Latin pop explosion of 1999 and made the transition of other Latin artists (first Jennifer Lopez and Enrique Iglesias, then later Shakira) into the English-speaking market easier. Ricky Martin became one of the top-selling albums of 1999, and was certified 7× platinum in the United States, selling over 15 million copies worldwide. In October 1999, Martin embarked on a very successful year-long Livin' la Vida Loca Tour.

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