Global pop superstar Ricky Martin joined Elsa Sánchez from Washington D.C.’s El Zol 107.9 to talk about his newest single, what it feels to have ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, and how to tend to his mental health and speak with his kids about the pandemic.
You can listen to the interview and read the audio transcript, below!
New single “Aveces Bien y Aveces Mal ” in collaboration with Mexican group Reik.
First of all I’m a fan of Reik…Eventually I was like, ‘I have to work with them’, and I think that working with Reik I’ve been able, in one way or another, to go back to the beginning of my career at the time as a soloist, where I presented many ballads. It makes me very calm. This song is very real…it is transparent…it talks about what every human being lives, the ups and downs because sometimes we are good, and sometimes we are bad.
Wanted his next album “Play” to be party and carnival-themed, but that changed when he went into the studio.
[I] realized we were all in a quiet place…in a more Mediterranean state…I fell into a completely different state.
Mental health during the pandemic and suffering from anxiety.
Honestly, the pandemic affected me a lot… It gives me a lot of anxiety. I wanted to let my children know that everything was going to be fine when I didn’t even know how the situation was going to be.
I still have anxiety. At the moment, I need silence to find a little calm and to be able to find that balance to be able to keep going. I share it because I know that there are many of us who are going through this, and I think that if you don’t talk about it, [the struggle is] not worth it. If I have the possibility and the unifying power that music gives me to talk about our weaknesses and our fears, well, I think that strengthens the public and lets them know that everything happens and that everything will be fine.
The importance of telling his children to express their emotions.
I think that the important thing here is to ask your children ‘how are you?’ Or ‘how do you feel?’ And if they tell you ‘Fine’, then you tell them ‘Okay fine is not an emotion…really, tell me, how are you?’ Finding ways for them to put into words how they are actually feeling…That is something that has helped us very much.
