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Ricky Martin

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Ricky Martin

Enrique José Martín Morales (born December 24 1971), better known as Ricky Martin, is a Grammy Award and Latin Grammy Award-winning Puerto Rican pop singer who rose to fame, first as a member of the Latin boy band Menudo, then as a solo artist since 1991. He has sold almost 48 million albums around the world,[1] charting twenty one top-ten hits on the U.S. Latin Charts, eight of which reached number one, and a total of over thirty hit singles.

Early life

Martin was born on December 24, 1971, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the only child of Enrique Martín, a psychologist, and Nereida Morales, an accountant, who also had two children from her first marriage. His parents divorced when he was two, and both later remarried, giving Martin three more step-siblings from his father's second marriage. Though no one in his family was connected to show business, Martin was drawn to the spotlight as a child, telling his father at age six that he wanted to perform.

Career

At the age of 12, Martin auditioned to become a member of the band Menudo, a manufactured Latin pop group composed of young Hispanic adolescent musicians who were rotated out of the group as they advanced into their teen years. When Martin was 17, however, he left the group and returned to Puerto Rico to complete high school.


Solo Career

After completing high school, Martin left San Juan and moved to New York. Later,Martin moved to Mexico City where he started acting, first in theater productions, and then in a soap opera ("telenovela") titled Alcanzar una Estrella (Reach for a Star). A film based on the series was produced in which Martin played "Pablo," earning a Heraldo Award in 1993.

Ricky Martin

While acting in Mexico, Martin was signed to Sony Discos, the company's Latin imprint, in 1990. He released his first solo album, the Spanish-language Ricky Martin, in 1991, which included the single "Fuego Contra Fuego". The hit release earned gold records in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Puerto Rico, and the United States, and he performed a string of sold-out concert dates across South America.

Me Amaras

In 1993, Ricky Martin released his second solo album ''Me Amaras'' , which sold more than a million copies worldwide.


In 1994, Martin moved to Los Angeles, California. He received a role as bartender (Miguel Morez) in the American soap opera General Hospital.

A Medio Vivir

In 1995, Ricky Martin refocused on his music career through is third album A Medio Vivir. With this album, Martin made a shift from formulaic hit ballads to a more risky fusion of music centered around traditional Latin sounds. With the smash hit "Maria," which eptimizes this new sound, Martin began his expansion from Latin American and Spanish speaking audiences to the European and Asian markets.


Broadway

After the conclusion of a world wide tour, Martin returned to New York to appear in a Broadway production for the first time. He played the romantic lead,Marius Pontmercy, in Les Miserables.

Vuelve

While on broadway, Martin returned to the studio and recorded his fourth album called Vuelve. Vuelve was certified platinum by the RIAA and went on to sell eight million copies worldwide. He was chosen to sing the anthem of the 1998 FIFA World Cup, the famous hit "The Cup of Life"/"La Copa de la Vida", that reached number one on the charts in sixty countries.

Ricky Martin (English)

After several years as a major star in Spanish-speaking countries, Martin prepared his first English album in 1999. The self-titled album contained material by producers such as Desmond Child, Diane Warren, William Orbit and his long time childhood friend (producer/singer) Robi Draco Rosa. The album also featured special guests, Madonna (on the Spanish-English duet "Be Careful (Cuidado con mi Corazón)") and Sertab Erener (on the single of his album called "Private Emotion"). The first and most prominent single was "Livin' La Vida Loca," which reached number one in many countries around the world, including the U.S., the U.K., Argentina, Australia, Brazil, France, Turkey, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Guatemala, Mexico, Russia, and South Africa. This album became one of the top-selling albums of 1999, and was certified 7 times platinum, selling over 17 million copies worldwide.

Sound Loaded

After the success of Ricky Martin, a new English-language album, Sound Loaded, was released in November 2000. Though the album did debut in the top ten (number four), it failed to reach number one. Three singles were released from Sound Loaded: the first was "She Bangs", which was followed by a duet with Christina Aguilera called "Nobody Wants to Be Lonely". Unlike the first two singles released from Ricky Martin, neither of the first two singles from this album reached the U.S. Top Ten on Billboard's Hot 100; they reached twelve and thirteen respectively. The third single, "Loaded" reached ninety-seven on Billboard's Hot 100. Sound Loaded eventually sold two million copies in the USA.

La Historia

In 2001, Martin released a Spanish Greatest Hits album entitled La Historia, which went to number one in the Latin Charts and stayed there for five weeks. The album contained reworkings of two of his early songs Fuego contra fruego and El amor de me vida.

The Best of Ricky Martin

In the same year, he released his English greatest hits album, The Best of Ricky Martin, which went on to sell over one million copies. The album contained no new material save for two remixes of the track Amor. Both remixes were released to radio in some European countries and a cd single was also released.

Martin was a headliner in the 2001 inauguration ball for President George W. Bush, he even invited the newly elected president to join him onstage to dance. This image was captured by photographers and broadcast in various media throughout the world. Martin would even go so far as to reference it in a later song Asignitura Pendiente. Martin's performance and his approval of the president caused a rift between him and his song writer partner Robi Rosa who was quoted as saying "Singing 'The Cup of Life' at George Bush's inauguration is like playing the fiddle while Rome burns".[2]

Martin changed his position on the President. In a concert in Puerto Rico during the song Asignitura Pendiente Martin thrust his middle finger disapprovingly in the air while singing the line "photo with Bush". The gesture met with audience approval but caused a minor controversy with the media. Martin said in an e-mail statement sent to the Associated Press via a spokesman: "My convictions of peace and life go beyond any government and political agenda and as long as I have a voice onstage and offstage, I will always condemn war and those who promulgate it".[3]

Almas del Silencio

In 2003, Martin released a new Spanish album Almas del Silencio. The first single, "Tal Vez", went to number one on the Latin Charts and stayed there for twelve weeks. He said of the new album: "I really needed to go back to focus, to my center, to the beginning. I had the need to search within, and really dig deep, and find those emotions that, because of the adrenaline and the euphoria that I lived for a couple of years, were probably sabotaged."[4] Almas del Silencio debuted at number twelve on the Billboard 200, reached number one on the Latin Albums charts and stayed there for six weeks. The next singles, "Jaleo" and "Y Todo Queda en Nada", reached number one on the Latin Charts, and the album sold more than 1 million copies worldwide [1].

Life

On October 11 2005 Martin released his first English language album since 2000's Sound Loaded and the tenth album of his career. Most of the songs on the album, called Life, were co-written by Martin. He commented on the album: "I was really in touch with my emotions. I think this album is very multi-layered, just like life is. It's about feeling anger. It's about feeling joy. It's about feeling uncertainty. It's about feeling. And all my emotions are part of this production."[5] The album debuted at number six on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart. The first single from the album was "I Don't Care"/"Qué Más Da", featuring guest appearances by Fat Joe and Amerie.

Another single was released "Drop It on Me", which did not chart. Soon after, Martin announced his Latin American tour called Una Noche con Ricky Martin/One Night Only, promoting his latest album Life. Starting in Latin America, the tour premiered on November 15 in Mexico City. After finishing the first leg of the tour (which included Latin America and the U.S.), he released his next single, "It's Alright" (Spanish version: "Déjate Llevar"). A different version appeared in France, which included additional vocals by French R&B singer M. Pokora. The song went to number 4 in France.[6]

Martin performed at the 2006 Winter Olympics Closing Ceremony in Turin. A few days later, he announced the second leg of his world tour (which included Europe and Africa) called One Night Only/Una Noche Con Ricky Martin World Tour. The second leg started on April 21 in Manchester, U.K., and ended on June 3 in Tel Aviv, Israel, including shows that sold-out in two hours (Italy and Finland). In addition, he performed at the World Cup Fan Party in Berlin (Brandenburger Tor) on June 7 2006, and at Lebanon's Beiteddine Festival on May 27 at the BIEL seafront hall in Beirut and on May 28 in Egypt , his first concerts in the Arab world following a promise to Queen Noor on his 2005 visit to the Arab Conference in Jordan. During this visit, he recorded an Arabic/Spanglish version of "Drop It on Me", "Enta Omri" with Arabic pop star Cheb Mami.

MTV Diary and MTV Unplugged

MTV aired "MTV Diary: Ricky Martin" in November 2006, showcasing scenes from the "One Night Only" tour, on the road and onstage. MTV Latin America and MTV Tr3s co-produced the "Ricky Martin MTV Unplugged" show to be taped in Miami on August 17th, 2006 and premiered on MTV Latin America, MTV Tr3s and MTV Puerto Rico in October 2006.

"Ricky Martin MTV Unplugged" was released by Sony BMG on November 7, 2006 in both separate CD and DVD formats, and in May 2007, was re-released together in a CD/DVD combo-package. Available exclusively at Wal-Mart with the original CD purchase is a separate Ricky Martin DVD titled "Making of Ricky Martin MTV Unplugged", which includes a 40 minute behind the scenes documentary and the music video to "Tu Recuerdo". (It should be noted the music video for "Tu Recuerdo" is just an extracted live performance of the song from MTV Unplugged.)

The first single of the album, "Tu Recuerdo", featuring La Mari from Chambao, reached number one on the U.S. Latin Charts. The album debuted at number one on the U.S. Latin Charts and number thirty-eight on Billboard 200.

This album includes Puerto Rican influences, particularly "Tu Recuerdo" (based mainly on a Puerto Rican "aguinaldo jíbaro",[7] and finishing with an "aguinaldo orocoveño"[8]) and "Pégate", a Puerto Rican plena. Christian Nieves plays the Puerto Rican cuatro on both tracks.

Personal life

For many years, Martin has been very secretive about his private life, refusing to either confirm or deny his sexuality, leading to speculation that the singer is gay. Ole Henriksen, a famous Hollywood skin specialist and Martin's close friend has been quoted as confirming that the singer is gay to a Swedish magazine. "He is a bit more open about his sexual orientation these days than he used to be." Henriksen was quoted by the magazine in December 2007.[9]

Social work

Martin, the Goodwill Ambassador to UNICEF, established the Ricky Martin Foundation in Puerto Rico to advocate for the welfare of children around the world.

Ricky Martin has also collaborated with the International Organization for Migration on the "Llama y Vive" (Call and Live), a campaign which is aimed to facilitate prevention of human trafficking, protection of the youngest victims of child trafficking, and prosecution of the traffickers.

Television appearances

Discography

Further information: Ricky Martin discography

Accomplishments

In addition to the numerous awards received throughout his musical career, Martin has also been honored with many accolades for his humanitarian efforts including: the Leadership in the Arts Award, Billboard's Spirit of Hope Award, the Alma Award, Vanguard Award, and the International Humanitarian Award by the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

  • Martin was chosen along with Félix Trinidad in 1999, to lead Puerto Rico's worldwide tourism campaign, both exemplifying Puerto Rico's youthfulness, enthusiasm and indefatigable character.
  • In September 2002, Martin received a Hispanic Heritage Award for his humanitarian work through the Sabera Foundation in rescuing three orphan girls from the streets of Calcutta.
  • In February 2004, Martin received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Premios Lo Nuestro in Miami, Florida.
  • For his work against human trafficking, the U.S. State Department named Martin one of its "Heroes in Ending Modern-Day Slavery" in 2005.
  • Martin has been nominated one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World by People magazine and its sister magazine People en Español in 2000 and 2006 respectively.
  • Martin was honored as the 2006 Latin Recording Academy Person of the Year by The Latin Recording Academy on November 1 2006. He was chosen for his accomplishments as a world renowned entertainer, consummate performer and passionate humanitarian. A portion of the proceeds from the evening's tribute dinner was used benefit Ricky Martin's charitable efforts.
  • On October 16, 2007, Martin received the 2351st Hollywood Walk of Fame star.[10]
  • Martin received the key to the city of Miami Beach, Florida on October 11

Notes

  1. ^ a b Adams, Steve: "Martin's World View", Billboard magazine, November 4, 2006, p. 64-66.
  2. ^ "Bush Whacked by Ricky Martin", Miami New Times, 17 May 2007. Archived article.
  3. ^ "Singer Ricky Martin 'Fingers' Bush for Iraq Criticism". Associated Press, February 16 2007.
  4. ^ Livin' The Serious Life; Ricky Martin's New Album Matches His Outlook
  5. ^ Ricky Martin Lets 'Life' Happen
  6. ^ Classement des 100 Singles Classement des meilleures ventes de singles réalisé par l'IFOP pour le SNEP
  7. ^ http://www.cuatro-pr.org/Home/Audio/Indexaudio/Instrmusaudio/Genres/Seises/seisesvidal/27Aguinaldojibaro.mp3 A sound sample of an aguinaldo jíbaro, played by cuatro player Efraín Vidal
  8. ^ http://www.cuatro-pr.org/Home/Audio/Indexaudio/Instrmusaudio/Genres/Seises/seisesvidal/8Aguinaldoorocoveno.mp3 A sound sample of an aguinaldo orocoveño, played by cuatro player Efraín Vidal
  9. ^ Ricky Martin 'outed' by pal
  10. ^ http://www.boston.com/ae/celebrity/articles/2007/10/16/ricky_martin_gets_walk_of_fame_star/

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ricky Martín.
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