Seven years ago, Ricky Martin was livin' la vida loca, selling out stadiums and racking up multiplatinum records after singlehandedly launching Latin music into mainstream American consciousnes.
April 26, 2007 (Press Release) --
Then, sooner than you could say "She Bangs," he was eclipsed by newer Latin stars like Shakira and Juanes.
His realignment in the pop-music universe probably had more to do with re-evaluating his place in the real world. "There was a moment in my life where I thought I don't ever need to go back onstage because there are other things in life that really move you," said Martin, speaking from a recent tour stop in Guadalajara, Mexico. "Music moves me, of course, because of the vulnerability [you display] onstage when you're creating music and feeling the connection with the audience, but when you hand out the key to a house that you've built or when you worked with children who have been victims of prostitution or pornography, and you see how they've been helped out of their circumstances, that doesn't compare with anything that show business has given me."
To address social welfare issues in the Third World, he established the Ricky Martin Foundation in 2000. Later he expanded the charity's mission to include issues of child exploitation. His advocacy work has attracted plaudits from UNICEF, the U.S. State Department and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who partnered with Martin to create an online safety campaign. Last year the Latin Recording Academy named him Person of the Year for his philanthropic work.
Now on the strength of his "MTV Unplugged" (2006) disc, Martin has returned to the road with his "Black & White" tour, which stops Wednesday at the Allstate Arena. In his native Puerto Rico, where the tour kicked off in February, more than 60,000 fans turned out in a record-setting engagement, and in Argentina, one concert drew 50,000 attendees. "MTV Unplugged" bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard Latin chart, received three nominations in this year's the Billboard Latin Music Awards (airing at 7 p.m. Thursday on Univision).
"The Ricky Martin name is still huge," said Jose Tillan, the MTV Latin America senior vice president for programming. "Besides, he planted a big flag for Latins around the world; he was the ambassador for Shakira and everyone else who followed."
Though Anglo audiences might wonder where he has been for the last few years, his core Latino audience has remained loyal. After Martin released his solo debut disc in 1991, they followed him through "A Medio Vivir" (1995), the disc that introduced "Maria," his first big hit, and then on to "Vuelve" (1998) and "Almas del Silencio" (2003). These Spanish-language discs formed the basis for "MTV Unplugged," which traded bonbons, shaken or otherwise, for bomba and other tropical Latin rhythms.
Source: http://www.msn.com
His realignment in the pop-music universe probably had more to do with re-evaluating his place in the real world. "There was a moment in my life where I thought I don't ever need to go back onstage because there are other things in life that really move you," said Martin, speaking from a recent tour stop in Guadalajara, Mexico. "Music moves me, of course, because of the vulnerability [you display] onstage when you're creating music and feeling the connection with the audience, but when you hand out the key to a house that you've built or when you worked with children who have been victims of prostitution or pornography, and you see how they've been helped out of their circumstances, that doesn't compare with anything that show business has given me."
To address social welfare issues in the Third World, he established the Ricky Martin Foundation in 2000. Later he expanded the charity's mission to include issues of child exploitation. His advocacy work has attracted plaudits from UNICEF, the U.S. State Department and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, who partnered with Martin to create an online safety campaign. Last year the Latin Recording Academy named him Person of the Year for his philanthropic work.
Now on the strength of his "MTV Unplugged" (2006) disc, Martin has returned to the road with his "Black & White" tour, which stops Wednesday at the Allstate Arena. In his native Puerto Rico, where the tour kicked off in February, more than 60,000 fans turned out in a record-setting engagement, and in Argentina, one concert drew 50,000 attendees. "MTV Unplugged" bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard Latin chart, received three nominations in this year's the Billboard Latin Music Awards (airing at 7 p.m. Thursday on Univision).
"The Ricky Martin name is still huge," said Jose Tillan, the MTV Latin America senior vice president for programming. "Besides, he planted a big flag for Latins around the world; he was the ambassador for Shakira and everyone else who followed."
Though Anglo audiences might wonder where he has been for the last few years, his core Latino audience has remained loyal. After Martin released his solo debut disc in 1991, they followed him through "A Medio Vivir" (1995), the disc that introduced "Maria," his first big hit, and then on to "Vuelve" (1998) and "Almas del Silencio" (2003). These Spanish-language discs formed the basis for "MTV Unplugged," which traded bonbons, shaken or otherwise, for bomba and other tropical Latin rhythms.
Source: http://www.msn.com
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