PAUSA Ricky Martin

• 1 Simple 03:32
• 2 Recuerdo 03:52
• 3 Cae de Una 03:37
• 4 Quiéreme 03:06
• 5 Tiburones 03:16
• 6 Cántalo 03:42
• Total Runtime 21:05

Info for PAUSA

The world paused and for the first time in his life Ricky Martin felt anxiety. From his home in Los Angeles, where he worked with his foundation to get protective gear and food to hospitals and people in Puerto Rico and beyond, he followed the pandemic news and tried to hide his distress from his family.

“I had never suffered from anxiety, and I left home when I was 12 (to join boy-band Menudo). I have seen things, I have lived, but this is a new level, this is a new monster and to top it all, it is invisible,” (Ricky Martin)

“I spent two weeks with a poker face so my family wouldn’t be affected, but finally I was able to raise my head and say ‘eh, something very good has to come out of this, get creative.’ And I started making music and it was my medicine, honestly, because I really felt like I was gasping for air,” he said.

The result is “Pausa,” a surprise EP “with a lot of introspection” released Thursday, featuring four new songs that evoke romance, and at times, sadness. It includes collaborations by Sting (singing in Spanish,) Carla Morrison, Diego El Cigala and Pedro Capó, as well as the previously released singles “Cántalo,” with Residente and Bad Bunny, and “Tiburones.”

It is the first part of a bigger project that will follow with “Play” — hence his use of the hashtag #PausaPlay in social media. The initial idea was to release a whole album that he had previously been working on for months, but Martin felt that the rhythms were not the most appropriate for the moment.

“I said, ‘Sony, lets divide the album in two. Let’s start now a little calmer and bring in the party afterward’,” he said. “What I am presenting, these four songs, are little magical things that happened during the quarantine, like calling Sting, like talking to Carla Morrison.”

The new songs are “Simple,” with Sting; “Recuerdo,” with Mexican indie-pop singer-songwriter Morrison; “Cae de una,” with Puerto Rican Capó, and “Quiéreme,” with flamenco singer Diego El Cigala. Each embraces the style of the guest. Martin says he got out of his comfort zone “a little” — such as with Flamenco style vocals — but still manages to achieve a natural sound.

The songs were recorded with the artists in London, Paris, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, with the help of sound engineer Enrique Larreal in New York.

“My engineer was able to create a system where everyone — my producer in Miami, me in L.A. — had a sharp, immaculate audiovisual experience. I can be recording and literally see in my laptop the movement he is making in his console table in New York,” Martin said. “What did he do? What did he invent? Well, he’s already receiving calls because there’s a lot of curiosity.”

Ricky Martin, vocals

Ricky Martin
is unquestionably the leading Latin Music figure of his generation. His instinctive understanding of rhythm, passion for performing, willingness to take creative risks and natural charisma has led Martin down a musical path of artistry and superstardom.

Since his earliest days as a performer, Martin has always known that in order to have an enduring career, his musical evolution must never end. That is why he has honed his creative spirit by exploring the diversity of Latin music genres. Knowing that music has no boundaries has fed his artistic growth and inspired his voice to become a vehicle of diverse expression. With perseverance and hard work over the course of a two decade career, Martin has become one of the world's top- solo artists, having sold more than 55 million albums.

This album contains no booklet.