Ricky Martin

The dancing, the slim hips, the chin cleft -- it all helped, but what really made Ricky Martin a pop mainstay in the U.S. was this album. Let's face it: everyone wants to shake their "bon-bon" even if they don't know what it is. And besides soaring to No. 1 on pop charts, "Livin' La Vida Loca" fed a new Spanish phrase into the English language.

Ex-Menudo member Ricky Martin's English-language debut isn't quite the international show
horse that was Vuelve -- but then that platinum album was the home of "La Copa de la Vida,"
the song that Martin sang on this year's Grammy telecast with a world-conquering energy
unseen since Michael Jackson performed on the Motown 25 special. Unfortunately for
Ricky Martin, the goal of storming the U.S. means several remixes and two slick D... More >

The boy-group boom is harmless-if-bad. Martin is more like bad-if-not-worse. Since he was already marked for death with Menudo, don't be so sure his rebirth is a one-shot. But don't make him a Latin-pride poster boy either. Slicked-up rhythm workouts and romantic pap were tokens of progress circa Xavier Cugat and Desi Arnaz. In an America where Spanish is a second language, they're the reactionary strategems of one more crappy pop star. (Grade - C)