Feeling blue because you weren't able to get tickets to any of the dates on Ricky Martin's ongoing sold-out tour? Well, take heart: This Friday night, you can watch the Latin pop sensation shake his bon-bon on television.
At 8 ET/PT, CBS will present Ricky Martin: One Night Only! The hour-long program will showcase Martin performing such hits as Livin' la Vida Loca, Maria, She's All I Ever Had and The Cup of Life before a live audience.
In addition, there will be interview segments and behind-the-scenes footage.
Martin says he was approached by CBS back in February on the night of his show-stopping performance at the Grammy Awards.
TV veteran Ken Ehrlich offered to write and produce the special. The show was directed by Bruce Gowers, who worked with Martin on several episodes of General Hospital back in the singer's days as a soap-opera heartthrob.
It was taped in September at New Jersey's Liberty State Park, with New York City - "the capital of the world," according to Martin - as a backdrop.
"I told my musicians and dancers we had to create something special," Martin says. "I wanted to reach people who don't know my music - people who maybe only know about Livin' la Vida Loca. And I wanted the audience to be part of the show - that's a must. I always want to break that boundary; that fourth wall of theater doesn't exist in my shows."
Martin was equally keen to share the stage with a couple of older Latin crossover stars, Carlos Santana and Jose Feliciano, who perform a medley with him on the special.
"Those are my legends," Martin says. "Part of my mission is to educate people - to let them know about people who have done so much for Latin music throughout the decades, not only in America but all over the world."
Martin's pride in his heritage also led him to tape the interview portion of One Night Only! in his homeland.
"When (CBS) said they wanted to spend an hour with me, I said, 'We have to go to Puerto Rico,' " he says. "Because there I can talk about the streets I grew up in and about who I am and what I am made of. It's up close and personal with Ricky Martin."
After he finishes this leg of his American tour Dec. 7, and a few European dates the following week, Martin will return to Puerto Rico to spend some time with his family. In March, he'll begin another round of performances in the USA, Europe, Asia and Latin America before heading into the recording studio later in the year.
"Being onstage is such a beautiful gift," he says. "It's amazing, because you're being judged, and yet it's the only time you don't feel threatened by judgment.
"It's like showing your baby to the world."
MIAMI - Who says you have to be a teeny-bopper to live la vida loca?
The crowd that gathered outside the Miami Arena to catch the first, sold-out performance of Ricky Martin's U.S. tour Wednesday night included middle-aged women, parents with children and even a group of male Danish tourists who bought tickets via the Internet. Women and girls in the audience outnumbered male fans, but not overwhelmingly.
Of course, there were plenty of starry-eyed young girls eager to snatch a glimpse of pop music's animal-magnetism magnate.
"I like his music and his looks," gushed Ashley Gebara, 10, of Miami. "He's a good role model," added her cousin, Claudia Marzoa, 15. "He doesn't need anything violent to promote his music. And he's so hot."
Still, despite the presence of news crews, including one from Costa Rica, the audience was relatively sedate while awaiting the Puerto Rican-born singer's show. A former 'N Sync merchandising representative who was selling Martin paraphernalia characterized the evening's initial atmosphere as considerably more mellow than that during the scream idols' recent tour.
All that changed the moment the lights went down. The screams began immediately and continued during a short film prelude, depicting Martin getting out of bed, washing his face, entering a car and outpacing a pursuing posse of paparazzi on motorcycles.
Martin, dressed in a black Armani shirt and leather pants, then launched into his breakthrough hit, Livin' la Vida Loca. The more he swiveled his hips, the louder the screaming became.
Martin danced around a Mustang convertible placed at center stage, climbing atop it at times. His song introductions were mostly in English, but he did not neglect his Spanish-speaking fan base, and when he sang the Spanish-language Vuelve, much of the crowd sang along.
"Hold on tight, we're gonna have a hell of a night," he proclaimed before singing Shake Your Bon Bon. An excited crowd seemed determined to prove him right.
After a show tonight in Miami, Martin heads to Tampa on Friday and Atlanta on Sunday.
Photo Caption - Livin' it: Ricky Martin danced around a Mustang convertible as girls screamed (AP).
MIAMI - What do you get when you mix a slickly packaged, somewhat overexposed pop star, generally less-than-stellar material and a stage show that evokes some of the biggest cliches in contemporary music?
The answer should be a big, bloated, boring mess. But when Ricky Martin opened his national tour at the Miami Arena, it wasn't.
To be sure, Martin's Wednesday concert - the first in a series of sold-out shows through Dec. 6 (dates are expected to be added for next year) - included the hokey shenanigans you would expect from a singer whose audience consists largely of teeny-boppers and middle-of-the-road-pop fans. There were flashy film clips, writhing dancers and a romantic duet (Private Emotion, featuring backing vocalist Madeline Rosado) that could have been lifted out of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.
But Martin's strong presence cut through all the schmaltz. If his performance invited comparisons , they weren't to other candy-coated pop acts, such as the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears, but, oddly enough, to Bruce Springsteen.
While they have little in common musically or imagewise, the Puerto Rican pop idol shares with the New Jersey-bred rock icon a couple of increasingly rare assets that no performer can fake: a joyful, unaffected charisma that derives from passion rather than put-on attitude, and an extraordinary rapport with the audience. Like the Boss, Martin comes across as both a consummate showman and a likable guy who doesn't take his success for granted.
So potent is Martin's charm that even his superficially unctuous gestures were endearing. Introducing the gentle, acoustic Vuelve - one of numerous songs he performed in acknowledgement of his Spanish-speaking fan base - he offered a sweetly earnest discourse on lovers' angst. And when he described the pensive ballad I Am Made of You as "a one-on-one conversation with my Higher Power," his words seemed born of real humility and gratitude.
Predictably, though, Martin was at his best delivering more uptempo material. His set began with a lively version of the inescapable hit Livin' la Vida Loca and concluded with an exuberant run of salsa-kissed confections (including Shake Your Bon Bon and Maria) during which he demonstrated the inexhaustible energy and effortless sex appeal he used to stop February's Grammy Awards telecast cold.
Grinning boyishly and gyrating with feral abandon, Martin seemed to be having as much fun as his fans.
In doing so, he not only satisfied the faithful, but won over a few skeptics - this critic included.
