Ricky Martin turns 52 today
He’s one of the leading Latin music artists worldwide and was able to cross boundaries and popularize that music style regardless of the language barriers
Ricky Martin turns 52 today
Pop singer Ricky Martin was born December 24, 1971, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Martin began appearing in commercials on local television around the age of six. He auditioned three times for the teen singing group Menudo before finally earning a spot in 1984. In his five years with Menudo, Martin toured around the world, singing in several languages. He reached the group’s age limit of 18 in 1989 and returned to Puerto Rico just long enough to finish high school before moving to New York to pursue a solo acting and singing career. His debut solo album, “Ricky Martin”, was released in 1991 by the Sony Latin division, followed by a second effort, “Me Amaras”, in 1993. His third album, “A Medio Vivir”, came out in 1995, the same year that he lent his voice to the Spanish-language version of Disney’s animated feature, Hercules. His fourth album, “Vuelve”, released in 1998, featured the hit single, “La Copa de la Vida” (“The Cup of Life”), which Martin performed at the 1998 World Cup soccer tournament in France, as part of a showcase broadcast to more than 2 billion people around the world. At the Grammy Awards in February 1999, Martin, already a global pop sensation, gave a sizzling performance of “La Copa de la Vida” at Los Angeles’s Shrine Auditorium just before picking up an award for Best Latin Pop Performance for “Vuelve”. He followed that star-making Grammy night with the release of his phenomenally successful first English single, “Livin’ La Vida Loca.” His album “Ricky Martin” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard chart. Martin came out in 2010 on his website, he wrote, “I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am.” Martin explained that his decision to go public with his sexuality was inspired in part by his sons. During an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres’s talk show in November 2016, Martin announced his engagement to Jwan Yosef, an artist who was born in Syria and raised in Sweden. More recently, scandal threatened Ricky Martin’s clean career, when his nephew Daniel Sanchez, accused him of sexual abuse, filling a lawsuit and a restraining order against him. Martin addressed the accusations as being false. Sanchez end up quitting the lawsuit and a month after withdrew his restraining order, Martin claims that Sanchez began sending him messages through Instagram, threatening to “assassinate his reputation and integrity” if he didn’t cough up cash. Martin claims in his suit that Sanchez — whom he described as a “maladjusted individual” — bragged about being his nephew and would send him messages up to 10 times a day for a four-month period. Ricky Martin counter-filed a $20 million lawsuit. No proves of his nephew accusations ever surfaced.
Look back at 1999 music video for “Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin
Watch more 1990’s related videos
Images and photographs can be from different ranges of sources such as Pinterest, Tumblr etc. except when/where noted. If you are the copyright holder and would like them removed or credited, please get in touch.
