Touring La Vida Loca
Ricky Martin exhausted a crowd that could not get enough of the Latin heartthrob at the sold-out Miami concert that opened his 24-city North American tour.
Thousands of screaming fans turned out Wednesday to see the pop superstar, who opened the show dancing on top of a silver convertible driven in front of the stage. Fans young and old began arriving hours before the concert to secure their spots in line.
"I love Ricky Martin because he is so hot," said Lisa Wartenberg, 13, before entering the arena. "He is Spanish to begin with and his butt, it's so firmÂ… Oh, he is so sexy."
Most of the 11,000 fans at the sold-out show were females in their early teens, but 57-year-old Leonard Wald said he is proof that Martin appeals to all types.
"He's got all these Latin people here and he's got an old Jewish guy. He appeals to everybody," Wald said.
Martin has a second show at Miami Arena Thursday night, then is scheduled to perform Friday at the Ice Palace in Tampa. His tour will wrap up in Cleveland on December 6th.
Born Enrique Martin Morales in 1971 in Puerto Rico, Ricky Martin began his career at age 12 as a member of the teenybopper group Menudo. He later embarked on a Spanish-language solo singing career. In 1994, Martin landed a role on ABC's soap opera General Hospital.
With his current smash-hit She's All I Ever Had climbing the U.S. pop charts, Ricky Martin is gearing up to star in his new Pepsi commercial titled "Bottles." The spot is the first to support Pepsi's new Goza El Sabor ("Joy of Cola") campaign, and represents the company's largest Latino effort to date. The commercial debuts this week on Univision, Telemundo and Galavision. The 30-second commercial features the celebrity doing what he does best -- performing the new Goza El Sabor song to a sold out crowd.
In addition to a second Pepsi television commercial, Martin will also appear in a major print, radio and in-store advertising campaign. The U.S. Latino advertising was created by Dallas-based agency and Dieste & Partners.