Ricky Martin

Performer: Ricky Martin
Artist: Madonna; William Orbit; Meja; Gyan; Jon Secada; Robi Rosa; Kenny Aronoff; Luis Enrique
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Personnel includes: Ricky Martin, Madonna, Meja (vocals); Robi Rova (acoustic & electric guitars, bass programming, background vocals); Dan Warner (acoustic & electric guitars); Eric Bazilian (12-string & electric guitars, mandolin); Tommy Anthony (nylon guitar, bazouki, sitar, keyboards); William Orbit (guitar, keyboards); Manny Lopez, Rusty Anderson, Rene Toledo (guitar); Tony Concepcion (trumpet, cornet, flugelhorn); Randall Barlow (trumpet, programming); Paquito Hechavarria (piano); Randy Cantor (keyboards, programming); Rob Hyman (organ); Ricardo Suarez, Hugh McDonald (bass); Kenny Aronoff, Alex Saris, Lee Levin (drums); Luis Enrique, Rafael Solano (percussion); Jon Secada, Gyan, Sueann Carwell (background vocals). Producers include: Desmond Child, Robi Rosa, Madonna, William Orbit, Jon Secada. Engineers include: Charles Dye, Jules Gondar, Sebastian Krys. Walter Afanasieff won the 2000 Grammy Award for Producer Of The Year for "I Count The Minutes." RICKY MARTIN was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Pop Album. "Livin' La Vida Loca" was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Record Of The Year, Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s), and Song Of The Year. "Livin' La Vida Loca" won the 2000 Billboard Latin Music Award for Latin Pop Track of the Year and was nominated for Hot Latin Track of the Year. "Livin' La Vida Loca (Spanish version)" was nominated for the 2000 Latin Grammy Award for Record Of The Year and "Bella (She's All I Ever Had)" was nominated for the 2000 Latin Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Perforance. The statement may raise a few eyebrows, but this ex-Menudo hunk has come up a stunner of an album. A track like "Livin' La Vida Loca" makes a seamless amalgam of Pan-Americana in which surf guitars, electronica, and Mariachi horns rock together in fine form, and its Spanglish chorus feels as ordinary a pop hook as any other. Much of the album's appeal lies in the fact that it makes a booty-shakin' piece of art of North America's sometimes divisive bilingual reality. "The Cup Of Life," with its Carnaval-esque splendor, gathers a good deal of steam. "Shake Your Bon-Bon" and "Maria" do more of the same, while "She's All I Ever Had" and "Be Careful" take it more sweet 'n mellow. Subtle yet urgent, the latter track has the one and only Madonna adding heat to the pot, with English and Spanish pleading that twists into a fiery double helix with Ricky's soft crooning.

Rolling Stone (6/10/99, p.123) - 3 out of 5 - "...The history of Latin pop is crowded with distinction. Yet often enough on RICKY MARTIN, this sudden superstar and his unsleepy producers make it into a new thrill." Spin (8/99, p.155) - 7 (out of 10) - "...new romancer Ricky Martin...rolls as poly-traditional as any dream of Beck Hansen...it's all about people pleasing people....[Martin] knows how to set the backfields in motion..." Entertainment Weekly (5/14/99, p.) - "...

Getting his start as part of teenyboppers Menudo in the '80s, and staying in the public's eye as an actor on General Hospital, Ricky Martin launched his own solo career by the late-'90s. Nobody could have predicted Martin's meteoric rise, topping the charts and selling out arenas on the strength of his monster Latin dance hit "Livin' La Vida Loca."

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