#rickymartin #biography #documentary
Born Enrique Jose Martin Morales on December 24, 1971, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Martin began appearing in commercials on local television around the age of six. He auditioned three times for the teen singing group Menudo before finally earning a spot in 1984. In his five years with Menudo, Martin toured around the world, singing in several languages. He reached the group's age limit of 18 in 1989 and returned to Puerto Rico just long enough to finish high school before moving to New York to pursue a solo acting and singing career.
While Martin was actively pursuing his acting career, he was also recording and releasing albums and making concert appearances. He had become well-known in his native Puerto Rico and among the Latin/Hispanic community as a whole.

His debut solo album, "Ricky Martin", was released in 1988 by the Sony Latin division, followed by a second effort, "Me Amaras", in 1989. His third album, "A Medio Vivir", came out in 1997, the same year that he lent his voice to the Spanish-language version of Disney's animated feature, "Hercules". His next project, "Vuelve", released in 1998, featured the hit single, "La Copa de la Vida" ("The Cup of Life"), which Martin performed at the 1998 World Cup soccer tournament in France, as part of a showcase broadcast to 2 billion people around the world.
At the Grammy Awards in February 1999, Martin, already a global pop sensation, gave a sizzling performance of "La Copa de la Vida" at Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium just before picking up an award for Best Latin Pop Performance for "Vuelve".

He followed that star-making Grammy night with the release of his phenomenally successful first English single, "Livin' La Vida Loca." His album Ricky Martin debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard chart. Martin was also featured on the cover of Time magazine and credited with helping to bring a growing Latin cultural influence into mainstream American pop music.

In November 2000, Martin released Sound Loaded, the much-anticipated follow-up album to Ricky Martin. Its hit single, "She Bangs," earned Martin yet another Grammy nomination, for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
After "Sound Loaded", Martin continued making music, both in Spanish and English. His greatest Spanish-language hits were compiled on "La Historia". This was followed two years later by "Almas del Silencio", which contained new material sung in Spanish. The album "Life" was his first English-language album since 2000. The album did reasonably well, reaching the top 10 of Billboard's album charts. Martin, however, has yet to recapture the same level of pop success he achieved with previous albums.

In 2012, Martin made a guest appearance on the high school musical series "Glee". He also returned to Broadway that April for a revival of the hit musical "Evita" by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. He played the role of Ché, who helps narrate the story of Eva Peron, one of Argentina's most legendary figures and wife to leader Juan Peron.
Martin starred in FX's "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story", which premiered in January 2018. Martin played Versace's longtime partner Antonio D’Amico, who was there the day that Versace was murdered.
Martin became a father with the birth of twin boys, Matteo and Valentino, via surrogate in 2008. Once evasive about his private life, Martin came out in 2010 on his website. He wrote, "I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man. I am very blessed to be who I am." Martin explained that his decision to go public with his sexuality was inspired in part by his sons.

During an appearance on Ellen DeGeneres' talk show in November 2016, Martin announced his engagement to Jwan Yosef, an artist who was born in Syria and raised in Sweden. Martin confirmed that the two had quietly gotten married, with a big reception to come in the following months.
Martin saw his family grow with the arrival of daughter Lucia in late 2018. Another son, Renn, followed in October 2019.
He founded the Ricky Martin Foundation in 2000 as a child advocacy organization. The group runs the People for Children project, which fights child exploitation. In 2006, Martin spoke in support of a United Nations effort to improve the rights of children worldwide in front of the U.S. House International Relations Committee.
Martin, through his foundation, also supports efforts by other charitable organizations. He has received numerous awards for his philanthropic work, including the 2005 International Humanitarian Award from the International Center for Missing and Exploited Children.