Word: spanishness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Puerto Rico is where it starts. It is an island inhabited by the descendants of black slaves and Spanish conquistadors; here cultures collided, rhythms intermingled, and salsa emerged, inspired by Africa and Europe and by New York City. Marc Anthony's parents hail from the island, and Jennifer Lopez, though born and raised in the Bronx, also has roots there. As for Ricky Martin, he was born in Puerto Rico, the only child of Enrique Martin, a psychologist, and Nereida Morales, an accountant (Martin's parents separated when...
...visited Italy, Japan, Guam and Spain before he was old enough to shave. During one stretch, he and his young bandmates played for a month in Brazil (singing in Portuguese), then flew to the Philippines (singing in English) before returning to Latin America for a series of shows in Spanish. Life became a blur...
After finally leaving the group at age 17, Martin embarked on a commercially successful Spanish-language solo career. He was signed by Sony, which early on saw a future in Latin pop (Anthony, Lopez and Shakira are all on various Sony labels). Says Sony Music CEO Tommy Mottola: "The heart and soul of the music will be able to break down barriers easily. It's undeniable...
...performance of the soccer anthem La Copa de la Vida at the 1998 World Cup confirmed his superstar status internationally; his pelvic-swiveling rendition of the song at the Grammys earlier this year proved a breakthrough as well. He had done the impossible: he had sung about soccer in Spanish and got Americans to care. What could be harder? A French-language ode to cricket? At the Grammys, Beck stood and clapped. Madonna signed on for a duet. Martin's stateside career was launched. Several publishers, including HarperCollins and St. Martin's, are already rushing out books...
...States?" says Martin. "It's all about communicating. The last album [Vuelve] did really good, to be quite honest--I want to be humble about this--all over the world. One of the songs was No. 1 in 22 countries. And it was in Spanish. So I didn't have to go to English to make...