Ricky Martin

While most of mainstream America may have been tangentially aware of him before his star-making performance on the 1999 Grammy Award telecast, Ricky Martin was already well-known to a large part of the world. The Puerto Rican-born singer and actor was actually a showbiz veteran with some two decades of work to his credit. Martin began his career at age six appearing in locally-produced TV commercials. After two unsuccessful tries (he was deemed too small physically and too baby-faced at first), he landed a gig with Menudo in 1983. Over his father's objections, Martin joined the singing group (which he characterized as "five years of discipline . . . it was military") touring the world and singing in several languages. When he hit the group's retirement age of 18, Martin retreated briefly to Puerto Rico and then spent six months of unemployment in NYC. An offer to appear in a stage musical in Mexico broke the drought and led to his casting on the Spanish-language telenovela "Alcanzar una Estrella II/To Reach a Star", on which he portrayed a singer-musician. His character proved so popular that the fictional band toured Mexico and was spun-off into a feature based on the serial.

By this point, Martin had begun a successful solo singing career, releasing his first eponymous album in 1988. Deciding to try his luck in Hollywood. the tall (6'2") handsome singer-actor with the chiseled jaw and dimpled chin landed a recurring role on the short-lived NBC sitcom "Getting By". He segued to American soap operas with a role as an orderly turned singing bartender on the popular "General Hospital" from 1993 to 1994. While he proved a charismatic presence onscreen, his character was never fully integrated into the serial's storylines, although he was allowed to occasionally display his vocal abilities. After checking out of "General Hospital", Martin fulfilled another dream by co-starring on Broadway in the musical "Les Miserables", playing the juvenile lead of Marius. All along, he was also pursuing his music career, releasing albums and making concert appearances. Recognizing his standing in the Latin/Hispanic community, Disney tapped him to sing the Spanish-language version of the theme to the animated feature "Hercules" (1997) and then hired Martin to perform the title character's vocals as well. In 1998, at the World Cup soccer games, Martin enlivened things with his rendition of "La Copa de la Vida/The Cup of Life" but it was several months later during that Grammy telecast when he truly stole the show (just moments before picking up an award) with a pelvis-thrusting, hip-swiveling performance of the same song. After that, it seemed one could not escape Martin. His English-language debut album (also called "Ricky Martin") debuted at Number One and contained the infectious number "Livin' La Vida Loca" which had become a staple on MTV. Martin appeared on virtually every conceivable TV show and was featured in practically every magazine (including gracing the covers of TIME and TV GUIDE). It was clear that Hollywood would soon be beckoning. What remained to be seen was whether at the dawn of the new century people would be saying "Ricky Who?" or that Martin would continue on his upward trajectory to stardom.