Sandi Dior 
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(11/14/05 6:49 pm)
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Ricky takes over
By: Melba Brugueras
editor ESCENARIO
Miami, Florida - Ricky Martin knew that his inactivity on the stage was going to generate a lot of questions, although the meeting set up between the Boricua and the Puerto Rican press a month and a half ago was to talk about his new album in English called “Life”. Martin understood it and with much eloquence and kindness he answered each and every one of the questions he was asked.
The meeting with the Puerto Rican star took place in the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Miami Beach. Before the interview, his personal assistant, Joselo Vega, allowed the journalists to listen to all of the songs on the album “Life”, a multi-cultural project which was recorded in Miami, Florida, Cairo and Los Angeles, California over a period of three years.
Without a doubt, the musical project stands out due to its richness of rhythmic and cultural fusions; a concept in which Martin has placed high hopes of taking over the world again, as he expressed in his meeting with ESCENARIO.
As this newspaper anticipated, the first single of this cd “I Don’t Care”, was written and produced by Sean Garrett (Usher, Ciara) and Scott Storch (50 Cent, Beyonce, Fat Joe). “Life” includes Spanish and English versions of the song, and it’s already being heard on the radio.
“Life will go on sale Monday, October 10 in the international market and the following day in the United States. After the release of the cd, Martin will begin a world tour, which will include Latin America, the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Although with the cd “Almas del silencio” you touched base in the muscial atmosphere, you have not set off on a tour as big as The Livin la Vida loca tour in five years, why?
- I was demanding so much of myself and everyone had very high expectations from me. All of that was turning into self-destructive thoughts, because the whip is always in my hand; me beating myself with the whip and beating the people who were surrounding me. There was an obsession for control and I said “enough already”. I asked myself: But you haven’t realized what you’ve done to yourself? You haven’t realized that you’ve been able to break boundaries, that you’ve sold 60 million cd’s and that you’ve been on stage with some great legends? I said to myself, man, accept a beautiful reality. I understood that you don’t have to make music, that you do it because you want to; you don’t have to leave Puerto Rico, you do it because you want to.
Do you think that you stopped in time?
- A lot of people told me that I was crazy, how could I end the most important moment of my life. It has been a very intense process of decodification. Five years ago I was in Australia doing a Livin la vida loca concert, I came down from the stage and I said “Get out, get out, everyone go home.” At that moment I said, “I’m tired, I’m bored, I don’t like being on stage anymore.” Really in about two minutes the 12 years that I’ve worked collapsed and was thrown in the garbage; I couldn’t let that happen. Now I feel more relaxed, more comfortable in my skin and I’m doing music because I like it.
So then, it was like you went into isolation?
-You could say so. But it was important to go into that isolation, because I needed to travel to literally exchange ideas not just with musicians, but also with young people from all over the world. At the same time it was having the opportunity to visit the nighttime, the nightlife of different cities and capitals like Rio de Janeiro, Cairo, Bombay, Tokyo, New York and London. I needed time to see how we (the world), were reacting to different rhythms. And that’s why I went to Egypt and a got myself an ethnic Egyptian instrument, and I went to India and I did the same thing...after doing all of that “Life” was born.
What did your friends, those close to you and the professional people that you work with think of that isolation?
- There have been different reactions. Some have reacted with fear, wondering what is going to happen now. Many people in the industry, powerful people, have told me: “you know what my brother, congratulations, you have my respect, you have to wear the pants to do what you did, you didn’t let yourself be seduced by the fame or the money.” I just focused on myself and that is what really takes place in my new music.
Puerto Rico is a highly musical country and loves many different genres. What would you say to all of the boricuas who were left wanting more from you after the Livin la vida loca tour ended?
- I have no doubt that Puerto Rico loves music and the artists. But at a given moment I started to see that my actions were going to look bad to PuertoRico then I decided to stop. When you’re not in the best mood, you retire. I knew that I had to leave the limelight and analyze what I was doing. I picked myself up and I went home. I felt homesick, anger, happiness and many of those things I could shape in my music. Bring on another 30 years! That’s what I would say to my Boricuas!
What was the motivation for “Life”?
-Life is the final product of positive and significant moments and negative and significant moments. As part of the creative process of this cd, the only thing I did was let life happen; it was a need that I had, of analyzing my emotions and of not being automatic in my answers and that is reflected on the cd. During the creative process of this project, I understood that you don’t have to say that you’re okay when you aren’t. Before, there was the need to be accepted by everyone and I said “no, ladies and gentlemen, right now I am where I am and this is my music.” “Life” reflects the rebelliousness, but also reflects my honesty because you have music that I made with my heart.
You don’t usually classify your music, but “Life” is a cd rich in fusion, how would you define it?
-Without a doubt it’s a multicultural cd in which you can even feel reggaeton, (which I believe is here to stay). People in the industry and the music fans have told me that the more they listen to the cd the more things they discover. It’s a project full of little gifts. If you ask me to classify my music, (which I hate to do because this cd fuses hip hop, middle eastern music, asian music, latin music and it has influences of rock), well it would be something like “world music”. I have never been a purist and I will never be one; and however much I would like to repeat the sounds that I presented in the past, it would be impossible because I am not the same person.
How does it make you feel that “Life” could be a hit?
-This time I didn’t do music to please anyone because that would have been sabotaging my emotions and sabotaging your emotions is like being dead and I want to live. That is where the name “Life” comes from. I understood that I had to please myself, and that once that happened, I would be able to convince people of what I am presenting in this cd.
How will you return to the stage? Will it be by means of a big tour like Livin la vida loca or through a series of acoustic, more intimate shows as has been mentioned?
-No, toned down...I think the next time I go on stage is going to be more intimate where the audience will be part of the stage. They’re going to see proyeccion (stage design, lights, etc) and the music is going to be great. But I need to get busy with the idea of starting off “heavy” next year.
So then, would you give in to the demands of a full and intense agenda after having fled from that dynamic?
-Yes, but it is because now I want that, before I didn’t want it, that is the difference. Now I’m ready to go back to all of this. For 13 years of my life I didn’t stop, but I’m ready to do it again. If we look at it in a technical way and if we look at people like Madonna, Bono, U2, Sting and Janet Jackson...they stop for five years in between releasing albums. They work two or three years on a cd, they release it and they go out on tour and stop for five years and release another cd. I am just doing what I have learned from other legends.
Fans always concentrate on the image of their artists, especially if there has been some time since their last concert tour. You look thinner, very casual and you have some grey hair now. How would you describe your new look?
-I’ve always had my grey hair, but I had highlights and I had long hair, so you couldn’t notice so much before. I like the grey, I have no problem with it, that comes from the Martin side of the family (laughs). You know for many years I worked with Mr. Armani and I loved it, but no I’m not going to try so hard. I want to go out on stage and be comfortable like the way you see me now. I love fashion, I love what is fashionable, but I don’t want to wear a uniform. I’ll dress how I feel from day to day.
Speaking of fashion, after the experience you had in Brazil modeling for the C & A chain of stores, have you felt the urge to start your own line of clothing or cologne for example?
-Yes, I have thought about it. I’ll let you know when things are more concrete in that sense. But for the moment it is not something that I’m obsessed about now and it’s not something that I have to do before I die.
Onto other subjects, with the experience that you had through the Ricky Martin Foundation, do you think that the need to fight against the abuse and exploitation of children and human trafficking is more urgent than you had imagined or no?
With each day that goes by I realize that there is more to do. These are all organized crimes that make more than $10,000,000 a year. Fortunately I have been able to speak with leaders, prime ministers, presidents, congressmen, senators and I have been able to tell them what is happening; because in order to fight this you have to amend constitutions and in order to do that you have to go through an extremely bureaucratic process. This is alarming, it is the most poisonous venom that society today has to fight against. Various world leaders have asked me what is there to do. For example, the first lady of Mexico is very interested in helping, the same for Puerto Rico and the prime minister of Thailand. Music has definitely helped me get to some levels in order to be able to talk about these subjects.
Supporting causes like these shows your sympathy and your concern for children. Have you ever thought about having children or adopting?
-Well, I’d like to be a father. If you had asked me two years ago, I would’ve said “yes, we’re working on it”. As for adoption, well look why not? Angelina Jolie and Tom Cruise have adopted babies. So yes, I think that I would adopt. Here, in my heart, there is love for those that are mine and those that aren’t mine.
On various occasions you have expressed your preference for meditation when you have time. Is there any other discipline or past time that you practice which you haven’t yet made known?
-The other day I was asked what my past times are and I said kissing feet....(Laughs). Lately I have a terrible fetish for feet, but well we can play around with that another time. No you see I like parachuting and “capoeira”, a Brazilian martial art which was taught in the camp (Ricky Martin). That is a great discipline for the spirit and for the body and I said “my people in Puerto Rico have to have this, they have to feel this.” And we are very happy because after the camp many children were affected in a really nice and positive way because of that martial art.
Have you had any offers to act?
-Fortunately I have a full agenda until 2007 and honestly my priorities are the Foundation and my music. I have a lot of respect for the art of movies and for actors. It would be on a whim if I said “today I want to be an actor”. What is that? If I’m going to get involved in an acting project, I would like to be part of the beginning of that project, like for example with the script or in production like as director. But that doesn’t happen from one day to the next. I am saying this to you today but maybe tomorrow I will have an interesting opportunity where I’m surrounded by great actors and directors and they present a character to me that I can make my own. That’s the only way that I would consider it.
At the beginning of the interview you mentioned that reggaeton was here to stay. On your cd “Life” you have the talent of Daddy Yankee, Voltio, Fat Joe and Luny Tunes, among other professionals related to that genre. How was the experience for example with Daddy Yankee, who they call the Ricky Martin of reggaeton?
-(Laughs) One day Yankee was in Miami and I said to him ‘come by the house’. We started listening to music and the idea came up of doing something together. Working with him, with Luny, was very nice because they are people who have the ability of working with other styles of music, with sounds from other countries, other cultures. They are people with talent and vision. Not too long ago I was in London in a discoteque dancing away with my bottle of water and all of a sudden you could hear “zumbale mambo pa’ que mi gata prenda los motores” and I said ‘Go Boricua!!’
Did it create any problem or setback for you with the Jewish community when you acted publicly for causes related to the arab youth when you were in Jordan?
-I don’t know they (Jewish people) told me that I was used. You know what? It’s all very strange because I had the chance to speak in Jordan with 125 teens from the age of 14 to 16 years old, and the first thing that they asked me was if I had been the victim of stereotypes. They told me that they were tired of everyone thinking that they are terrorists; and I told them not to worry that I had also been a victim of stereotypes because to many people, we Latinos are drug traffickers, losers and bums.
Finally, what message can you send to Puerto Rico in moments of despair for various sectors of the country?
-We have to hang on to the meaning of the word gratefulness. At times we focus on what we don’t have, instead of what we do have. You have to realize that there is always someone who is more messed up than the other. You have to be grateful for many things; for work, friends, your home. Everyday you have to be thankful and not preach. I say to the boricuas to keep going after facing problems. Boricuas, we are always making jokes, we stand out for being positive. You have to leave behind the negativity and gossip, stop living other people’s lives and continue moving forward.
Thanks to Daniella on TSARM.
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Mrs. Enriqué José Martín Morales
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