Enrique Martín Morales, stage name of Ricky Martin, is a Latin pop singer and Puerto Rican actor born in San Juan, Puerto Rico on December 24, 1971.
In 1984 he joined the popular musical quintet Slight which was already famous in Latin America and other countries in the world. Starting in 1991, when the group, formed in 1977, was beginning to decline, Ricky began his solo career. In Mexico he appeared in several plays and in 1986 it was his turn as an actor, making his debut in the Argentine soap opera Por siempre Amigos, along with the rest of the members of Menudo. In 1991 he acted in the Mexican soap opera Alcanzar una Estrella II.
In 1991, with his first studio album Ricky Martin, he achieved position 5 on the Billboard Latin Pop Albums and sold more than 500,000 copies of the album in just one month. Singles like Fuego contra fuego, Tell me that you want me or El amor de mi vida, made him very popular in Cuba where many of his songs marked the music that Cubans listened to during the 90s. His third album A medio vivir (1995) achieved On the island, he recorded the songs I miss you, I forget you, I love you, the single A medio vivir, which gives its name to the album, and the phenomenon María, with which the singer's career took a turn. His remix with Spanglish lyrics and Afro-Caribbean rhythms was a hit in Europe and was the second best-selling single in the world that year. The real meaning of the lyrics of this song was very controversial in the 90s and helped its popularity. Although Ricky has always said that his song talks about an attractive woman named María, there are many who have seen a clear allusion to cocaine through its catchy chorus "that's María, white as day, but it's poison if you want to fall in love." . “This is María, so hot and cold, that if you drink it, it will surely kill you.”
With a career that was already consolidated within Latin pop, Martín managed to perform the official song in English and Spanish of the 1998 Soccer World Cup. His performance of the song at the '99 Grammys was seen by millions of people in more than 40 countries. and with it he won the Grammy for best performance of Latin popular music. This song is included in his single. Later that same year he would break out with his next album, Ricky Martin in English and Spanish, which would reach number 1 in the United States and where another of his greatest global hits is found, Livin' la vida loca.
In 2010, the singer made his homosexuality public, unleashing a great reaction and becoming an idol within the LGBT community that he has always supported and defended and whose fight for their rights made him worthy of the Peace Summit Awards in 2019, awarded by the world summit of laureates of the Peace Nobel .
Since 2016 he has shared his life with the Swedish-Syrian painter Joan Joseph with whom he has four children.
In 2018 he was nominated for an Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Television Movie for his role as Versace's lover, Antonio D'Amico, in "American Crime Story: The Assassination Of Gianni Versace."
As a philanthropist, Martin owns a Ricky Martin Foundation, through which in 2018 he gave houses in the Loíza municipality in Puerto Rico to those affected by Hurricane María, which devastated the island a year earlier, raising the money through selling t-shirts with their children's faces. Likewise, he joined a protest over the amount of donations sent from abroad that had not been distributed.
As a Puerto Rican, he is very supportive of his people and in 2019 he raised his voice against the religious freedom project tested by the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico. That same year, on June 9, the day of the country's National Parade, he was in charge of wearing the "Grand Marshal" sash at the party held in the Big Apple.
In 2019, after a chat from the governor of Puerto Rico Ricardo Rosselló was leaked, with messages that included homophobic and sexist comments and mentioned politicians, journalists and well-known faces, the singer asked for the unity of Puerto Ricans to bring about a change of course and traveled to Puerto Rico to participate with other artists from the country in a protest.
His Latin American sentiment does not remain only in Puerto Rico and at the end of 2019 he also made the news when, as a result of the protests in Chile, he used his networks to send a message to the Chilean president Sebastián Piñera: "President, Sebastián Piñera, please know that the will of a people respect each other, they comply, they comply. Listen to your people who are speaking forcefully to you," the Puerto Rican wrote on his Instagram account.
In September 2020, Luis Fonsi and Ricky Martin showed their support for the Democratic candidate for the presidency of the United States, Joe Biden, during an event held in Florida.
In 2015 Ricky Martin and the Cuban Yotuel Romero, from the popular group Orishas, released the song La mordidita whose music video exceeds one billion views on YouTube. Behind the topic is the wife of the popular Cuban musician Beatriz Luengo, author of the song. In September 2020, Luengo announced that she and Yotuel had composed the song Quiéreme corresponding to the album Pausa and that the Puerto Rican performed alongside the renowned Spanish singer Diego "El Cigala".
In September 2020, her nomination for the Latin Grammys was announced in the album of the year category for pause, best pop vocal album and best fusion/urban performance with the song Cántalo.
