Ricky Martin has been in the spotlight since he was twelve years old and part of the boy band Menudo. It’s been nearly 25 years since he branched out and pursued a solo career, and his English-language breakthrough hit, “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” turns Sweet Sixteen this year. Throughout his solo career, he has released ten albums and sold over 70 million album copies.
After bringing his “One World Tour” to Mexico last year, he decided to pursue another leg of the same tour this year, this time performing across the United States and Canada. The “One World Tour” will make two stops in Florida: one at the AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami on Saturday, October 24 at 8 p.m., and one at the Amway Center in Orlando in Orlando on Sunday, October 25 at 7:30 p.m. Puerto Rican artist Wisin, who has collaborated with Ricky Martin in the past, will be the opening entertainment act for both tour dates.
ABOUT RICKY MARTIN
Ricky Martin was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He started singing when he was only six years old. When he was twelve, he auditioned for a spot in the Latin boy band Menudo. It took two rejections before he was finally accepted by the group’s producers into the fold. He would be a part of the band’s lineup from 1984 to 1989. The group was very popular in Latin America as well as in the U.S. Hispanic community, singing songs in both English and Spanish.
He left Menudo at age 17 to pursue a solo career. He released his debut album in 1991, and moved to Los Angeles in 1994 to try a career in acting, quickly earning a role on the soap opera General Hospital. Feeling that Hollywood was biased against Latino actors, he put his acting aspirations on hold and went back to music.
He would release two more Spanish-language albums in the mid-1990s, and eyed a crossover move to the English-language market. He released his first English-language album in 1999 and it became a massive hit, going seven times platinum. “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” the lead single from the album, went to #1 in the United States and in many countries around the world, and the follow-up single, “She’s All I Ever Had,” peaked at #2. He went on to capitalize on this success with another album, Sound Loaded (2000), which yielded the hit singles “She Bangs” and “Nobody Wants to Be Lonely.”
He released three more Spanish-language albums in the early and mid-2000s, and embarked on a very successful world tour in 2006. Afterwards, he took a three-year hiatus from music. He would return to the spotlight in 2010 when he released his New York Times-bestselling autobiography, Me, in which he came out to the public. He struggled with his sexuality since the early 1990s and kept it bottled up, for fear of losing his career.
In 2011, he released the album Música + Alma + Sexo (Music + Soul + Sex), which topped the Latin albums chart in the U.S. for two weeks. He released a greatest hits album in the same year. In 2012, he started in a mentor role on the series The Voice Australia, and went on to become a mentor on The Voice Mexico in 2014 (he still participates in both series). His most recent album, A Quien Quiera Escuchar (To Those Who Want to Listen), was released in February 2015.
RICKY MARTIN: THE HUMANITARIAN
Ricky Martin started the Ricky Martin Foundation, whose mission is to “educate about the existence of human trafficking, through research and community initiatives, anchored in the defense of children and youth rights.” He has also spoken at the UN Conference on Homophobia, and has worked with GLAAD and amFAR. Over the years, he has spoken out in favor of LGBT equality, children’s rights and AIDS research, and against human trafficking, homelessness and war.
TICKETS
Tickets are available right now via Tickemaster and are priced starting at $23 per person for the Miami tour date and $24 per person for the Orlando tour date. To buy your tickets, go to Ricky Martin’s tour page at rickymartinmusic.com/events and locate your desired concert date on the calendar.
For more information on Ricky Martin, visit rickymartinmusic.com. Follow him on social media at facebook.com/RickyMartinOfficialPage and at twitter.com/Ricky_Martin.
