68 Facts About Ricky Martin

Enrique Martin Morales was born on December 24,1971 and is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter and actor.

Ricky Martin is known for his musical versatility, with his discography incorporating a wide variety of many elements, such as Latin pop, dance, reggaeton, salsa, and other genres.

Ricky Martin began his solo career in 1991 while in Sony Music Mexico, gaining recognition in Latin America with the release of his first two studio albums, Ricky Martin and Me Amaras, both of which were focused on ballads.

Ricky Martin performed the latter at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards.

Ricky Martin has been credited for propelling the Latin pop music genre to mainstream recognition, paving the way for a large number of Latin artists to achieve global success.

Ricky Martin has since released several successful albums, including Almas del Silencio and MTV Unplugged, as well as Grammy Award winner A Quien Quiera Escuchar.

Ricky Martin starred as Che in the Broadway revival of the musical Evita in 2012.

Ricky Martin has scored 11 Billboard Hot Latin Songs number-one songs, and won two Grammy Awards, five Latin Grammy Awards, five MTV Video Music Awards, two American Music Awards, three Latin American Music Awards, three Billboard Music Awards, nine Billboard Latin Music Awards, eight World Music Awards, fourteen Lo Nuestro Awards, a Guinness World Record, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Enrique Ricky Martin Morales was born on December 24,1971, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Ricky Martin's mother, Dona Nereida Morales, is a former accountant; his father, Enrique Martin Negroni, is a former psychologist who previously worked as a regional supervisor for a Puerto Rican mental-health agency.

Ricky Martin's parents divorced when he was two years old, and although his mother had custody of Martin, he could move freely between his father's house in the middle-class suburb of University Gardens in San Juan, and his paternal grandmother's house nearby.

Ricky Martin has some Corsican origins through his paternal grandmother.

Ricky Martin began singing at age six, using wooden kitchen spoons as make-believe microphones; he often sang songs by Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, as well as English-language rock groups such as Led Zeppelin, Journey, and REO Speedwagon.

Ricky Martin's mother's side of the family was musically inclined and his maternal grandfather was a poet.

Ricky Martin developed an interest in philanthropy when the group became UNICEF ambassadors.

Finally, Ricky Martin left the band in July 1989, at age 17, hoping to rest and evaluate his career path; he stayed a few extra months after his "age-mandated retirement" came around.

Ricky Martin performed his final show with the group at the same venue where he had performed his first performance as a member.

Ricky Martin was accepted into New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in 1990, but before classes began, his friend invited him to Mexico City.

Ricky Martin accepted the offer, dropped out of university and moved from New York to Mexico City to perform in the play.

Eager to record his first solo album and hustled by the executive, Ricky Martin signed the contract without reading its conditions and inadvertently signed a deal in which he would only be paid one cent for each album sold.

In 1994, Ricky Martin's agent encouraged him to move to Los Angeles to act in an American sitcom called Getting By.

Ricky Martin portrayed the role for two years and gained huge popularity and stardom, becoming "one of the most-talked about actors on the soap opera".

On "Maria", which was released as the second single from the album, Ricky Martin allowed himself "to go into a very Latin, African sound".

Ricky Martin created a mix of different Latin music genres instead of singing a romantic ballad, the style that he focused on it in his first two albums, while Latin pop music in general was mainly made up of it at the time.

Ricky Martin greatly enjoyed the experience, calling his time in the play an "honor" and "the role of [his] life".

Ricky Martin continued to tour after the conclusion of the show's run, and noted that his audiences were growing in both size and enthusiasm.

Ricky Martin called the experience of touring and recording at the same time "brutal and incredibly intense".

On July 12,1998, Ricky Martin performed "La Copa de la Vida" as the official anthem at the 1998 FIFA World Cup Final in France, in front of more than a billion TV viewers around the world.

Finally, on February 24,1999, cavorting with a 15-piece band alongside and a large number of dancers and percussionists, Ricky Martin performed a bilingual version of "La Copa de La Vida" at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards, which was greeted with a standing ovation and met with acclaim from music critics.

In October 1998, CNN confirmed that Ricky Martin has been working on his first English language album, following the huge success of Vuelve.

The album was titled Ricky Martin and was released on May 11,1999, two weeks ahead of schedule, because of the huge interest in the disc, following Martin's performance at the Grammy Awards.

Only within three months, Ricky Martin became the best-selling album ever by a Latin artist.

In October 2005, Ricky Martin released his third English album, Life.

Finally, Ricky Martin taped his MTV Unplugged set in Miami in August 2006, performing both romantic ballads and up-tempo tropical dance songs.

Ricky Martin starred as Che in the Broadway revival of the musical Evita from March 2012 to January 2013.

Ricky Martin served as a coach on the second season of the Australian singing competition television series The Voice in 2013.

Ricky Martin continued serving as a coach on both the third and fourth seasons of The Voice Australia in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

Ricky Martin signed a concert residency, named All In, to perform at the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino in Las Vegas in 2017 and 2018.

Ricky Martin portrayed fashion designer Gianni Versace's partner Antonio D'Amico in the FX true crime anthology television series The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, marking "the acting opportunity of his career".

Ricky Martin hosted the 20th Annual Latin Grammy Awards in November 2019, along with Roselyn Sanchez and Paz Vega.

Ricky Martin starred as the voice of villainous miniature figure Don Juan Diego in the American Christmas musical fantasy film Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey.

Ricky Martin brought him CDs of Fania All-Stars, Celia Cruz, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, and Gilberto Santa Rosa that slowly made him appreciate the richness of Puerto Rican culture.

Also, she once took them to a Fania All-Stars concert, which Ricky Martin is "beyond grateful" for.

Ricky Martin expresses that thanks to her mother, those influences had a "profound effect" on his musical career.

Ricky Martin has cited Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, and Madonna for teaching him "the beauty of pop".

In 1995, Enrique Lopetegui of the Los Angeles Times noted Ricky Martin's "improved vocal skills" on A Medio Vivir.

Ricky Martin became a teen idol with his debut as a member of Menudo, and a pop icon following global fame as a solo artist.

Ricky Martin is ranked as the most famous Latin music artist in the United States, according to YouGov surveys in 2023.

Ricky Martin explained that he chose surrogacy to become a parent for being "intriguing and faster" than adoption, which was complicated and could take a long time.

Ricky Martin dated Puerto Rican economist Carlos Gonzalez Abella from 2010 to 2014, as his first relationship with a man after coming out as gay.

Ricky Martin was raised Catholic but he said is not "the person who would ever look down upon one religion".

Ricky Martin expressed that he admires and likes Buddhist philosophy.

Ricky Martin owns a property in Puerto Rico and a private 19.7-acre island in Brazil.

Ricky Martin has been called the "King of Latin Pop" by various publications.

Ricky Martin is known as the pioneer in getting Latin pop music genre to mainstream recognition.

Ricky Martin expressed that writing the book was "one of the reasons" he decided to come out earlier that year.

Ricky Martin expressed that the book was inspired by his "personal life, with fantasy added to it", as well as "a lot of cartoons".

In January 2005, following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Ricky Martin visited Thailand to assess the needs of the minor survivors who were "extremely vulnerable to traffickers".

Later that year, the Ricky Martin Foundation signed an alliance in partnership with Habitat for Humanity to construct 224 homes for the tsunami-affected families.

On January 20,2001, during the first inauguration of George W Bush, Martin performed "The Cup of Life" and danced with him.

At the 2010 Billboard Latin Music Awards, Ricky Martin expressed his disagreement with the Arizona SB 1070 bill, a proposed law that would have required police officers to request documents from individuals whom they suspected to be illegal immigrants.

Ricky Martin has supported Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden.

In May 2021, Ricky Martin demonstrated his support for the Ni una menos movement, condemning femicides and violence against women in Puerto Rico, while calling authorities to protect women.

In October 2024, Ricky Martin endorsed Kamala Harris for president after a rally held by former US president Donald Trump at Madison Square Garden, in which comedian Tony Hinchcliffe compared Puerto Rico to a "floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean".

Ricky Martin went on the cover of the American LGBTQ-interest magazine The Advocate in July 1999.

Ricky Martin is currently considered to be a gay icon, with PinkNews labeling him "a strong advocate of LGBT rights" who "expressed support for equal marriage" since coming out.

Suzy Exposito from Rolling Stone argued that with risking his career and coming out, Ricky Martin "set the scene for Bad Bunny to be free in many ways that, during his own breakthrough moment, he could not".

In 2007, Ricky Martin was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 6901 Hollywood Blvd.