Estylo April 2007 - Ricky Martin interview

One night late last summer, Ricky Martin stood backstage at the Bank United Center in Miami preparing to add another milestone to an already illustrious career. After 15 years as a solo artist and many more with Menudo, the Puerto Rico native was ready to take the stage for his first ever MTV Unplugged performance.

“Everybody was very comfortable and very focused, and there was a lot of silence,” recalls Martin, describing the moments right before the performance began. “I got the entire band together and I did a little circle of prayer, and then I said, ‘Go kick ass out there!’”

In November, the concert made its television debut on MTV Latin America, MTV Puerto Rico and on many of the other 100 MTV networks worldwide. Ricky Martin MTV Unplugged was even the inaugural Unplugged installment for MTV Tr3s, a new cable-satellite hybrid broadcast that just debuted. The CD and DVD versions of the performance followed that month.

For the concert event, Martin found inspiration in his 2006 “One Night Only” tour, in which he decided to forego the arenas and stadiums for more intimate performances in 1000-seat theaters. The singer liked the feel of the shows and thought it was finally time to make his MTV Unplugged debut. He knew he made the right decision when he saw how the creativity flowed during the event’s preparation.

Martin recalls: “It was about moving on—‘Let’s do something new, let’s create fusion and let’s take it to the next level.’ I have to mention [composer] Tommy Torres and my musical director David Calbrera because they are a very big part of how we did this. We were like, ‘Let’s take it somewhere. Okay, get rid of this, add this, add a little bit of that.’ Man, everything happened so organically. There was so much magic in the creative process.”

In fact, Martin was surprised at how quickly they crafted the new compositions. He continues, “It took us about six weeks to put everything together. Usually, you spend a year working on the production of an album, but we did it all in a month and a half. It [only] took us those six weeks because everything was there. We would ask for something, whatever was in the cosmos, and boom! It would work. I am very happy. I hope every production is like this one.”

Because his studio compositions generally feature so much production, he was able to reshape the songs in different ways. Though most artists simply move from electric guitars to acoustic, Martin’s repertoire lends itself to broader reinterpretation and the singer took full advantage. The new versions include a host of sounds through Caribbean percussion, trumpets, violins, saxophones, accordions and other diverse instruments. This allowed Martin to focus on specific elements in the songs or even to create a whole new vibe. He does note, however, that fans might need to make some adjustments.

Order the April 2007 issue of Estylo
and read the entire story in English and Spanish.