Robbed hit of the week 11/8/21 - Ricky Martin's "The Cup Of Life"...

"The Cup Of Life (La Copa de la Vida)" - Ricky Martin

from the albums Vuelve (1998) and Ricky Martin (1999)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #45

This week's "Robbed hit" comes from Ricky Martin, who had finally broke through big (and started the "Latin Explosion" in the process) in the spring of 1999 with his #1 pop hit "Livin' La Vida Loca". With the huge success of this record, another record of his that had been a fan favorite got a new life on radio and the record stores. "The Cup Of Life" was originally on Ricky's 1998 album Vuelve, and was released as a single in March of that year as the official theme song for the World Cup, the international football (soccer in the U.S.) tournament that was being held in France. The all-Spanish version, "La Copa de la Vida", went top ten on the Latin Songs chart in America, while the single, which included Spanish, English, and "Spanglish" versions, made it to #60 on the pop Hot 100 that summer. During that time, people like me were buying up the single in droves, but after his #1 hit, even radio was getting on board with the song. It's no surprise - the song, written by Luis Gómez Escolar with producers Desmond Child and Draco Rosa, is a burst of joy and partying, and the chanting chorus is ready-made for stadiums as well as in living rooms, with its brassy touches and samba-style groove...

The second time around the Hot 100, "The Cup Of Life" almost made the top-40 on the Hot 100, stopping a handful of notches short in August of 1999, and spending a total of 34 weeks in its two runs on the chart. The song also popped on to the older-skewing Adult Top-40 radio chart at #40, climbed to #27 on their Rhythmic format list, and went all the way to #2 on the Hot Latin Songs chart. Internationally, the single topped the charts in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Australia, Belgium, and Switzerland, and peaked at #29 in the UK. The Vuelve album, which came out in February of 1998, made the top-40 on the Billboard 200 sales tally at #40, going on to sell over a million copies. At the Grammy Awards in 1999, Vuelve and Ricky won for Best Latin Pop Album, and his showstopping performance of "The Cup Of Life" began all the hype that led to "Livin' La Vida Loca".

(8/10)

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Now here's the Grammy performance of the song that simply is one of the best that ever was. Watching it live, I was simply awestruck, and knew he was going to be huge...