In my last post, on ATB’s ‘9PM’, I wrote about how rooted in the late-nineties that song seemed. I get a similar feeling about this number one, although they sound nothing alike. It’s just so 1999…
Livin’ la Vida Loca, by Ricky Martin (his 1st and only #1)
3 weeks, from 11th July – 1st August 1999
And I don’t mean that as an insult. This is a fun slice of Latin-pop, played at breakneck speed. It’s got ska horns. It’s got surf guitars. Not enough number ones feature surf guitars! In one of the most pure-pop years in chart history, ‘Livin’ la Vida Loca’ can count itself as one of its catchiest, and poppiest, number ones. But it also manages to do so with selling its soul to cheese – there is something respectably real about this, sounding like it was recorded by an actual band, with actual instruments.
It also has some memorable lyrics, about a fairly unhinged femme fatale, who’s into superstitions and voodoo dolls. She’ll make you take your clothes off, And go dancing in the rain… So fun are the words, and so fast do they rattle by – this really is a breathless song – that we don’t mind when she slips Ricky a sleeping pill and nicks his wallet in the second verse. Plus I’d argue that the title entered the wider pop culture for a good few years after this had been a hit.
I don’t whether this sounds so of its time because a) it’s a classic, b) because it reminds me of being thirteen (that devil nostalgia again…) or c) because it kicked off a big latin pop resurgence at the turn of the century. Think Santana’s ‘Smooth’, a Geri Halliwell #1 soon to come, as well as a bit of Mambo No. 5, not to mention J-Lo, Shakira, and Enrique Iglesias. This record’s popularity cannot be denied, though, and can be proven in one simple statistic: we’re over halfway through 1999 and ‘Livin’ la Vida Loca’ is the first chart-topper to spend more than a fortnight at the top!
From Puerto Rico, Ricky Martin had been a star in the Spanish-speaking world since the age of twelve, when he’d joined boyband Menudo. They had been going since the seventies, and had a policy of chucking members out when they reached sixteen, though Martin survived until he was seventeen. He clearly had something special… In 1991 he released his first solo album, while ‘Livin’ la Vida Loca’ was from his English language debut (though he’d had a smaller hit the year before with his ’98 World Cup theme ‘The Cup of Life’.)
I have a friend who is somewhat Ricky Martin obsessed, and have been with her to see him live in concert, in the front row. He put on a great show, and my friend is still a big fan of his, despite him announcing in 2010 that she is officially not his type… Meanwhile ‘Livin’ la Vida Loca’ may be his biggest hit, and his only UK #1, but I’ve always had an even softer spot for the similarly chaotic ‘She Bangs’, a #3 in 2000.
The UK Number Ones Blog 
Absolute trash, along with Mambo #5, the ilk of songs that you were never anywhere near an actual instrument and were all just done on buttons. Dreadful plastic-sounding, made-for-Halifax-adverts bilge.
I don’t know exactly how this was recorded, maybe it was all generated on a mixing board, but it sounds a lot more authentic than much of the recent pop-trash.
While the release of this song fell into a period where I largely ignored what was then-contemporary music, there was no way you couldn’t notice the Latin wave. Regardless of how you feel about “Livin’ La Vida Loca,” it was a groovy song with a catchy melody. As such, I’m not shocked to see it was successful.
Yes it felt like it was everywhere that summer. I think its a fine Latin pop song!
This is a great song, I don’t care what anyone says. This is how you write a pop song – so many hooks in this. Super fun slice of latin pop. Love the brass riff and guitar that opens the song. Love the surf guitars. Love the dynamic blend of Latin pop, dance, salsa, surf, and ska elements. Ricky Martin’s vocals are great. He projected such ladies man charisma that it was kinda a shock to find out he was gay, but nothing wrong with that obviously. I’m sure a lot of his female fans were disappointed. “Upside, inside out, she’s livin’ la vida loca,” that’s just a fantastic hook.
Music video is also so 1999 with the desaturated colours.
Yeah I agree this is just jam packed with hooks. Maybe too many hooks, as it zooms along at such a frantic pace and you almost don’t have time to appreciate them all.
Oh and maybe it takes one to know one, but it wasn’t a massive shock for us LGBTs when Ricky Martin came out… 😉
Oh boy, who doesn’t remember this one! LOL!
I quite like this one, got sick of it at the time, but sounds good now. A nice grainy vocal.
This was everywhere…who ever wrote it knew exactly what they were doing and he was perfect for the part. This one was hard not to like at first…before the onslaught.
Classic 90’s pop, and as a fan of latin-music I was all in favour of it becoming bigger, something about the rhythms that are great to dance to – though not on this, it’s too frantic for that, ditto She Bangs another goodie. Enrique or Smooth was more my pace, I got into Julio’s son ahead of the UK around about this time, as he got huge in the USA. Ricky was in a boyband, yes not remotely a surprise he batted for the other team, but teen girls not so great at picking up the signs 🙂
I didn’t know about Mr. Martin’s sexuality, so I had to read through the comments to understand your mysterious (to me) aside that he had officially declared your friend not his type. I was imagining some devastating encounter at a fan Q&A, or something.
I don’t think I’ve ever actually listened to this song; I just know it from background noise. Seems pretty catchy.
I’m amazed that you escaped this at the time – it felt like it was everywhere.
And I would have loved to have seen him officially turn my friend down! Sadly, no, they’ve never met, as far as I’m aware. I don’t know if it’s impressive, or sad, or funny, that he managed to make a career out of singing about wild, exotic women. Or maybe it was always tongue-in-cheek.