Puerto Rican performer Ricky Martin began his musical career during his school years, when he joined a local music group. Since then, the performer has been constantly improving in his field and reaching new heights.
Biography and early career
The full name of the Hispanic artist is Enrique Martin Morales. He was born in 1971 in the coastal capital of the island state of Puerto Rico - San Juan. His father was a psychologist, and his mother was an accountant. Unfortunately, the parents divorced when Enrique was only 2 years old. Each of them found a different life partner and got new children, so the boy grew up in the company of his half-brothers and sisters: two brothers and a sister - from his father's side, two brothers - from his mother's side.
From his earliest years, Ricky Martin showed his love for attention and stage. He often sang, danced and enjoyed himself. When he was nine years old, his father decided that such a charismatic and charming boy could find a place in advertising, and took him to the first auditions. In the next 2 years, he became a part of more than 10 commercials. Television advertising made him quite popular in his home country.
Deciding that it was time to move on and develop his vocal abilities, Enrique went to the casting for the local boy band "Menudo". The group's producers appreciated both the young man's musical ability and charisma, but considered him not high enough for this place. The boy was refused several times, but he did not give up. Such persistence paid off, because in 1984 Martin finally became part of the group. He sang in it for the next 5 years, but left the group due to the strict control of the producers and the lack of freedom of expression.
Musical career and greatest hits
Immediately after leaving school, the young man moved to New York to go to university, but even before the start of the new school year, he took his documents and moved to Mexico, where he was invited to play in the theater. After that, they began to offer him contracts in various films, TV series and television shows.
In 1990, the actor signed his first solo album contract. The contract was not drawn up correctly and Martin received practically nothing from it, although the sales were colossal. For himself, he considered this a good life lesson, after which he carefully read all the documents. In 1991-1992 the performer sang in the group "Muñecos de Papel", in which he finally felt like a part of the real music industry. In 1993, the 22-year-old musician released his second solo album, which is also gaining incredible popularity.
In 1998, the performer recorded a song for the 1998 FIFA World Cup - "La Copa de la Vida". It is still popular today and is used in various competitions. By that time, the singer was popular all over the world, his album was sold in millions of copies, his songs were known by heart. But he reached a fundamentally new level of fame in 1999, when he released the world hit "Livin 'la Vida Loca". He hit the first lines of the music tops in many countries of the world, and he can often be heard today.
In 2007, Ricky Martin began a three-year hiatus from his work, which he devoted to his personal life and writing an autobiographical book. It became a bestseller in 2010. To date, he has released 16 solo albums.
Personal life
Ricky Martin began to think about his unconventional orientation since adolescence, but he tried to suppress these thoughts in himself and hid them from everyone, which he later even regretted. In 1994, he began his first romantic relationship with a member of the same gender, but after a difficult breakup, he again began to be afraid of his sexual orientation and to date women. For some time he was in a relationship with Rebecca De Alba and even planned to marry her, but the couple eventually broke up completely.
In 2010, the musician came out. Since 2016, he has been dating Jwan Yosef, a Swedish artist, and at the beginning of 2018, the couple legalized their relationship. Martin has two twin sons from a surrogate mother, born in 2008.
