Enrique José Martín Morales - this is what the international superstar and native of Puerto Rico was called at his birth. He is one of the biggest teen idols in Latin America during the '90s. A lead singer of Menudo, Martin was blessed with good looks and a nice voice, which helped him become a Latin music star. He also became an actor, earning praise from the Mexican motion picture industry and starring on the American soap opera General Hospital, where he played MiguelMorez, a bartender who sings on the weekend.
Ricky Martin (b. December 24, 1971) was born and raised in SanJuan, Puerto Rico. As a child, he sang in the choir and performed in school plays. When he was six, he began acting in television commercials. Shortly aftereward, he took professional singing and acting lessons, which paved the way for his auditions for Menudo. In 1984, when he was 12 years old, he became a member of Menudo. For the next five years, he was the leadsinger of the group, helping them become international sensations. Once he outgrew Menudo in 1989, he went back home to Puerto Rico, where he completed high school. After graduation, he moved to New York, where he simply relaxed for several months.
Martin got his first taste of performing in grade school, where he acted in school plays and sang in the choir. As a small child, he appeared in a number of television commercials and immersed himself in singing lessons. Unusually, early influences included David Bowie and Cheap Trick until his mother escorted Martin and his brothers to a Celia Cruz concert, an event that had a profound influence. "One day our mother got tired of rock," he recalls with a smile. "She said, 'I can't stand it anymore!' and grabbed us by the ears and took us to a Celia Cruz concert. It really affected me." Today, Ricky says, "I listen to everything. I'm like a sponge. I'm in this creative moment that feels like, 'Let's get it out!'"
Martin landed a spot with the Latin boy group Menudo in 1984 at the tender age of 12, and for the next five years he maintained a grueling regime of recording work and tours. In 1989, when Menudo was at the peak of its success, Martin opted out and moved to New York, hoping to achieve solo success. After a year of unemployment, frustration led the aspiring entertainer to Mexico. Soon after being cast as a regular in the Mexican soap opera Alcanzar una Estrella II, Martin began dividing his time between acting and music. His first two Spanish albums, 'Ricky Martin' (1992) and 'Me Amaras' (1993), achieved gold status in several countries. This success led Martin to move once again, this time to Los Angeles in 1994 where he divided his time between his third Spanish album, 'A Medio Vivir' and as bartender Miguel Morez on the US soap, General Hospital.
Released in 1995, A Medio Vivir constituted a turning point in Martin's recording career. The album combined Latin styling with a rock orientation. Worldwide sales reached 600,000 within six months, and in October 1997 the release was certified gold. Martin was awarded the prestigious role of Marius in the Broadway production of Les Miserables and also found time to dub the Spanish version of the popular animated Disney film Hercules.
As soon as his year-long stint on Broadway was completed, Martin began work on his fourth Spanish album titled 'Vuelve', the album which sported the smash hit, "La Copa de la Vida". It experienced spectacular worldwide sales, to date selling 6 million copies. Following Martin's 1999 Grammy victory - Vuelve was named Best Latin Pop Album - and his much talked-about performance at the awards ceremony, sales of Vuelve jumped six-fold, thus creating the perfect atmosphere for the May release of Martin's first English-language album, 'Ricky Martin', which has been two years in the making. "It's all about communicating," Ricky says by way of explaining his decision to record in English. "I will never stop singing in Spanish -- that's who I am -- but this was always part of the plan."
"I had the dream team!," he enthuses about his producers: Robi Rosa (with whom he's been working for years); Emilio Estefan, Jr. (the pioneer behind the "Miami sound"); songwriter Desmond Child (best-known for his work with Bon Jovi and Aerosmith but, as Ricky points out, is Cuban-born and "very much in touch with the Latin sounds"); and, through Madonna, electronica titan William Orbit. The production values on Ricky Martin draw from, and enhance, the roots of his music. "Technology is great and it works so you use it," Ricky admits, "but I also try to keep things very simple. When it comes to music, you cannot pull a whip on yourself. I don't want my voice to sound too technical, I want it to sound like me. The way I feel is, I don't have to sound perfect, but my emotion has to nail it. There's nothing scientific about it, it's all about emotion. I let it flow. If it's real, it stays."
So far Martin appears to be handling his success well, turning down a chance to star opposite Jennifer Lopez in a film remake of West Side Story, on the grounds that the movie helps perpetuate Puerto Rican stereotypes; 'the consummate professional and painstaking artist'. He also continues to maintain a relationship with his longtime girlfriend, Rebecca de Alba (who hosts a TV show in Mexico), and in regard to his singing career he said to USA Today:
"I want to do this forever. I don't want to be the hit of the summer, and, hopefully, with a lot of humility, we can talk in 10 years and I'll still be here."
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