Song of the day 9/28/21 - She's into superstitions black cats and voodoo dolls, I feel a premonition that girl's gonna make me fall...

"Livin' La Vida Loca" - Ricky Martin

from the album Ricky Martin (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 (five weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 17

Today's song is from Ricky Martin, who grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Martin started his music career as a member of the boyband Menudo. That group was massive internationally, in the 1980s, especially in Spanish-speaking world, but they also crossed over to the American mainstream a bit in 1985 with their single "Hold Me", which went to #62 on the pop Hot 100 chart in Billboard magazine, while the self-titled album it came from reached #100 on the Billboard 200 sales tally. Ricky started with the group as a twelve-year-old in 1984 on their sixteenth album Evolucion, and left when he turned seventeen in 1989 after ten albums with the group.

Signing as a solo artist with Sony Discos, Ricky released his self-titled solo debut album in 1990. His first single, the ballad "Fuego Contra Fuego" ("Fire Against Fire"), climbed to #3 on Billboard's Latin Songs chart. With his third release, A Medio Vivir, Martin found himself with success even bigger than Menudo, when the song "Maria", recorded in "Spanglish" (a mix of Spanish and English), became an international hit, topping the charts in France and Belgium, and making the top ten in the UK, Germany, Italy, and most of Europe, while even popping on to the American Hot 100 at #88 in 1996. A total of eight songs from the set made the Latin Pop Songs chart, while the album made it on to Billboard's Latin Albums sales list at #11.

In 1998, Martin returned with his fourth disc Vuelve (Come Back). The title track "Vuelve" was Ricky's first to hit #1 on the Latin Songs chart in February of that year. For its follow-up, international football (aka soccer in America) organization FIFA commissioned Martin to record the "theme" to that year's big tournament the World Cup (think of it at the European Super Bowl). This time, not only did Ricky record a "Spanglish" version like "Maria", he also did separate Spanish and English version as well. "The Cup Of Life (La Copa Da Vida)" broke him even bigger than that track, topping the singles charts in Australia, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Sweden, and Switzerland, while going to #29 in the UK and originally #60 in the U.S. (it'll be re-released a year later and I'll cover it in more depth on my "robbed hits" series). Martin was nominated and won the Grammy Award in February of 1999 for Best Latin Pop Album. At the televised ceremony, Ricky performed "The Cup Of Life" and blew the audience (both in the theater and at home) away. You couldn't have set up a momentum like this did, nor could any of the canned "Grammy Moments" of these days compare to the utter awe it brought me seeing Ricky perform there as a total newcomer to the "mainstream" scene. The Vuelve album ended up peaking at #40 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, going on to sell over a million copies.

Only a few short months after his Grammy win and performance, Ricky, now fully with Columbia Records proper, released his second self-titled album (appropriate, since it truly was a rebirth). The lead single from the set which came out just a month after the Grammys was "Livin' The Vida Loca", was written by Draco Rosa and Desmond Child, two of the writers for "The Cup Of Life", with them switching roles having Child produce instead of Rosa. Over an infectious horn-filled production that even takes cues from the neo-swing and retro surf-rock that has been burning the airwaves, Ricky sings about a femme fatale who is evil at heart but he still can't say no to. With a gruffer lower vocal on the verses that builds to the chorus and with a storyline that alleviates having to explain the World Cup, it may be a concoction, but it definitely was the "big bang" of the Latin Explosion of 1999. The music video is a big-budget morphing special effects/dance number extravaganza.

"Livin' La Vida Loca" not only became Ricky's first top-40 pop hit in America, but spent over a month at #1 starting in May of 1999. The song took six weeks at the top of Billboard's older-skewing Adult Top-40 radio chart, while even climbing to #18 on the more sedate Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") format list. It also went to #1 on Billboard's Latin Songs and Rhythmic radio lists.The remixes of the track, done by the likes of Pablo Flores and Scissorhands, helped it rise to #5 on the Dance Club Play chart. Internationally, the single hit the top in the UK, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, Greece, and Hungary, while reaching the top ten in Spain (#2), Norway (#2), the Czech Republic (#2), Switzerland (#3), Italy (#4), Australia (#4), Sweden (#4), Finland (#5), Germany (#6), Belgium (#6), Iceland (#6), France (#7), and Austria (#7), The Ricky Martin album, released as the single was peaking in May, spent a week at #1 on the Billboard 200 sales tally, and with over a year on the chart, sold over seven million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 2000, "Livin' La Vida Loca" was nominated in four categories, losing Song of the Year and Record of the Year to another Latin entry, Santana's "Smooth", while Sting took home the Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Brand New Day". The record was also up for Best Instrumental Accompanying Vocalists, which went to the jazz group the Charlie Haden Quartet West with Shirley Horn for "Lonely Town". The Ricky Martin album was also nominated for Best Pop Vocal Album, with Sting also snatching it away for his Brand New Day set. Both Ricky and the Ricky Martin album will return to the series soon.

(10/10)

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Martin also recorded an all-Spanish version of "Livin' La Vida Loca", which topped Billboard's Latin Songs chart...