Vente Pa' Ca

One of the biggest Latin artists of all time, Ricky Martin is a globally recognized singer and actor known for his sophisticated, high-energy brand of pop. Martin initially gained fame in his teens as the lead singer of the popular boy band Menudo. He also became an actor, earning praise from the Mexican motion picture industry and starring as bartender Miguel Morez on the American soap opera General Hospital. While he won a Grammy for his 1998 solo album Vuelve, it was his 1999 English-language album Ricky Martin that propelled him to stardom. Buoyed by the hits "Livin' la Vida Loca" and "She's All I Ever Had," the record proved an international sensation, topping the Billboard 200 and selling over 15 million copies worldwide. Along with founding the nonprofit charity the Ricky Martin Foundation, Martin has remained a star, releasing a number of platinum albums, including 2000's Sound Loaded, 2005's Life, and 2015's Grammy-winning A Quien Quiera Escuchar. In 2020 and 2021, he was back on the Billboard Latin charts with the Pausa and Play EPs.

Martin was born on December 24, 1971, in San Juan, Puerto Rico. As a child, he sang in the choir and performed in school plays. When he was six, he began acting in television commercials. Shortly afterward, he took professional singing and acting lessons, which paved the way for his auditions for Menudo. In 1984, when he was 12 years old, he became a member of Menudo, debuting on the album Evolución. For the next five years, Martin was the lead singer of the group, helping them to become an international sensation. Once he outgrew Menudo in 1989, he went back home to Puerto Rico, where he completed high school.

After graduating high school, Martin spent several months living in New York before deciding to work his way back into the entertainment industry. He returned to Mexico, where he acted on-stage for a year and then returned to the music industry. In 1991, he released his self-titled debut album, which he co-wrote with his fellow Menudo alumnus Robi Rosa, who would become a regular collaborator over the course of Martin's career (often credited as Ian Blake). The album became a sizable hit on the Latin charts. Two years later, he followed it with the Juan Carlos Calderon-produced Me Amarás, which was an even bigger hit, launching him to superstar status in Latin America.

In January 1994, Martin joined the cast of the soap opera General Hospital, playing Miguel Morez. His recurring role was so successful that it landed him a role on Broadway, where he played Marius in Les Misérables. He left General Hospital to perform in the production and stayed with the play for about a year. In 1995, he released his third album, A Medio Vivir, a record that had a harder rock edge yet also featured such Latin styles as flamenco and Cumbia. It peaked at number 11 on the Billboard Latin Pop Albums chart. Martin returned in early 1998 with his fourth album, Vuelve, which fared even better, landing at number one on the Latin charts and cracking the Top 40 of the Billboard 200. Produced by K.C. Porter, with co-production by Draco Rosa and Desmond Child, the record spawned several hit singles, including "Perdido Sin Tí" and "La Copa de la Vida," the latter of which was also adopted as the official song of the 1998 FIFA World Cup as "The Cup of Life." Martin performed "The Cup of Life" at the 41st Annual Grammy Awards, where Vuelve also took home the Award for Best Latin Pop Performance.

In the spring of 1999, still riding the success of his well-received Grammy performance, Martin returned with his first English-language pop album -- which like his first long-player also happened to be titled Ricky Martin. The album topped the Billboard 200 chart and made him an international superstar thanks to the blockbuster singles "Livin' la Vida Loca" and "She's All I Ever Had." A year later, Martin sizzled again with the release of Sound Loaded. His biggest Spanish-language hits were collected on 2001's La Historia, while 2003's Almas del Silencio was an album of new Spanish material. Life, from 2005, was a return to English-language pop. Martin then released MTV Unplugged in 2006 in both CD and DVD formats.

After the success of his MTV Unplugged concert, Martin embarked on a worldwide tour in 2007, and a live CD and DVD of the Black and White Tour appeared later that year. Following his final show in Madison Square Garden, Martin took a career break from music to focus on his private life, although a collection of his Spanish-language hits, entitled 17, appeared in 2008. In March 2010, Martin publicly came out as gay with a message posted on his official website. Also that November, he published a tell-all autobiography. The following year, he returned with his ninth studio album, Música + Alma + Sexo, which featured guest appearances by Joss Stone, Natalia Jiménez, Claudia Leitte, and reggaeton duo Wisin & Yandel. The album landed at number three on the Billboard 200 and topped the Latin charts.

Martin spent the next couple of years focusing his energy on his charitable Ricky Martin Foundation. He announced a new collection of romantic songs inspired by the end of a long-term relationship. The set's first pre-release single, "Adios," was released in October 2014. In January 2015, "Disparo al Corazon," the second pre-release single, hit the charts. The same month, a somewhat elaborate Internet hoax was perpetrated stating that Martin had passed away. He responded via Instagram, putting the rumor to rest. His tenth studio album, A Quien Quiera Escuchar, was released a month later. The album not only charted in the Top Five but, as a result of its strong singles and videos, landed in the top spot on Latin albums charts during the first week of 2016. Later that September, Martin dropped the hit single "Vente Pa' Ca," which featured Colombian singer Maluma.

The single "Fiebre," featuring reggaeton duo Wisin & Yandel, appeared in 2018. That same year, Martin portrayed model and fashion designer Antonio D'Amico in the miniseries The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, for which he earned an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie. Martin returned to music in 2020 with two EPs, the ballad-oriented Pausa and the more dance-oriented Play. Released first in May 2020, Pausa featured the tracks "Cántalo" with Residente and Bad Bunny, "Tiburones," and "Simple" with Sting, and brought home the Latin Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album. Early 2021 saw Martin team up with Chilean-American singer Paloma Mami for "Qué Rico Fuera," the first single from Play, which arrived later that year. Another Play single, "Otra Noche en L.A.," arrived in January 2022. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Matt Collar

Maluma is the stage name of award-winning Colombian pop singer, songwriter, and rapper Juan Luis Londoño Arias. Possessed of a sweet, grainy tenor voice and streetwise yet romantic delivery, the pop urbano was able to cross over from a reggaeton audience to the mainstream thanks to infectious early singles such as "Obsesión" and "Miss Independent" (whose videos also went viral). His 2012 debut Magia endeared him to radio listeners across Latin America, while 2015's Pretty Boy, Dirty Boy broke through in the U.S., landing on the upper rungs of the Latin Pop, Urban, and Tropical charts. Since that time, Maluma has been charging toward world domination with a steady stream of videos, charting singles, and hit albums like 2019's 11:11 and 2020's Papi Juancho. He was also the subject of the documentary Maluma: Lo Que Era, Lo Que Soy, Lo Que Seré. His success continued in the next decade with the chart-topping 2021 single "Sobrio," his starring role in the 2022 Jennifer Lopez rom-com Marry Me, and the release of The Love & Sex Tape. 2023 brought additional hits like "La Fórmula" (with Marc Anthony) and "Coco Loco," before the August release of his sixth long-player, Don Juan. That album returned him to the Top 20 of the Latin charts and was followed by the 2024 Pirlo team-up "MIONCA."

Maluma's name is a tribute to his family. Before he began singing professionally, his now-famous stage name was a tattoo on his left leg. He made the word up from the initial syllable of his family's names -- his mother Marlli, his father Luis, and his sister Manuela. He adopted the name a few years later when he started singing and gained fame as a teenager. He originally pursued football as a vocation for eight years and was gifted enough to attract the attention of the media in his native Medellín. He initially sang for pleasure at hundreds of birthday parties, weddings, and celebrations. Given the rise of social media, and YouTube in particular, his already intense focus on music turned exclusive.

In 2011, at the age of 16, Maluma cut his first independent single, "Farandulera." Due to its internet popularity and emergent radio airplay in Colombia, the song gained the attention of Sony Music, which signed him. The following year, Maluma released Magia, his debut album. Several of its singles -- "Obsesión," "Loco," and "Miss Independent" -- received consistent airplay and hit the charts in Colombia and Latin America. His next single, "La Temperatura," entered the North American charts and earned him a Latin Grammy nomination in 2013. The following year, he was the featured vocalist on Elvis Crespo's hit "Ole Brazil," recorded for the World Cup.

Maluma returned in early 2015 with PB DB. The Mixtape, a compilation of hits with two new singles, "Me Gustas Tanto" and "Climax." The new tracks charted and set the stage for a brand-new album, Pretty Boy, Dirty Boy, which appeared in the fall. The recording was produced by Walter Kolm. In 2016, Maluma released a collaborative track with fellow Colombian star Shakira, "Chantaje," and the video became massively popular, racking up over one billion views online within five months. The track "Cuatro Babys," which reflected him as a swaggering Lothario with a rotating cast of women in and out of his bedroom, sparked a backlash when offended listeners called out the song's objectification of women. Some circulated a petition to have it removed from digital platforms. (It wasn't, but Maluma apologized.)

In 2017, Maluma was named "Artist of the Year" at the Premios Lo Nuestro, a Latin music awards show presented by Spanish-language television network Univision. That same year, he began work on his next album, writing songs in English as well as Spanish. In November 2017, he delivered an initial pre-release single, "Corazón," featuring Brazilian singer Nego do Borel, that peaked at number five at Hot Latin Songs. In May, he released the full-length F.A.M.E., produced mainly by the artist's Medellín camp, including Édgar "Edge" Barrera and "Rude Boyz" Kevin ADG & Chan el Genio, with further duet contributions by Timbaland ("Mi Declaración"), Prince Royce ("Hangover"), and Jason Derulo on the bilingual "La Ex." The album reached the top spot on the Latin Albums chart and number 37 on the Hot 200.

Early 2019 saw Maluma issue a remix of the single "Mala Mía," which featured contributions from Anitta and Becky G. A few months later, he collaborated with Madonna on the song "Medellín" from her album Madame X. The pair's hi-tech performance of the song at the Billboard Music Awards brought the house down with its use of holograms. That May, Maluma released his fourth studio album, 11:11, supported by the singles "HP" and "11 P.M." His collaborators on the record included Ozuna, Madonna, Daddy Yankee, and Ricky Martin. It entered the Top Latin Albums chart at number one in June while F.A.M.E. was still in the Top 20. Also in 2019, YouTube Originals premiered its documentary on the singer, Lo Que Era, Lo Que Soy, Lo Que Seré, directed by Dominican filmmaker Jessy Terrero.

In early 2020, Maluma scored another hit with the single "ADMV," which paved the way for his fifth album, Papi Juancho. Released in August of that year, it featured appearances by Yandel, Yomo, Lenny Tavárez, Justin Quiles, and others, peaking at number two on Billboard's Top Latin Albums chart and reaching number 34 on the Billboard 200. 2021 began with the release of the #7DJ (7 Días en Jamaica) EP, followed by the chart-topping stand-along single "Sobrio." Among Maluma's other singles that year were "Imposible Amor" with Natti Natasha and "Mama Tetema" featuring Rayvanny. In 2022, Maluma starred alongside Jennifer Lopez in the romantic comedy Marry Me, and also sang on the soundtrack. A few months later, he revisited the steamier side of his sound with The Love & Sex Tape which yielded several hits including "Cositas de la USA" and "Nos Comemos Vivos" featuring Chencho Corleone. Subsequent single "Junio" hit number one in Colombia, and Maluma recorded "Tukoh Taka" with Nicki Minaj and Myriam Fares for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

"La Fórmula," a duet with Marc Anthony, became another Colombian chart-topper in 2023. Maluma followed with solo single "La Reina" and "Diablo, Qué Chimba" with Anuel AA. "Coco Loco" followed in June. In August, Sony released the long-player Don Juan. The whopping 25-track album, is, according to the artist, titled after an alter ego. The set includes collaborations with a range of singers and rappers like Carin Leon, Jowell & Randy, Ryan Castro, Don Omar, J Balvin, and Yandel, and boasts ten pre-release singles. It hit number 11 on the Top Latin Albums chart and cracked the Billboard 200. "MIONCA," a collaboration with Pirlo arrived in May 2024. ~ Thom Jurek