Me

to be completely my own.
    I began working with K. C. Porter, an amazing producer, and Robi Draco Rosa, an ex-colleague of mine from Menudo. Draco was always a very talented musician, singer, and artist. He was someone whom I’d always admired and it was nice to see how destiny had played out—to reunite us after so many years. Draco has since produced various records for me. Just as he once said in an interview: “Ricky Martin and I are like Julio Iglesias and Sid Vicious.” What he does with me has absolutely nothing to do with what he does with his own music and his performances onstage, and this is a musical versatility not many artists possess. He knows exactly what I need and when I need it. From that first collaboration with Draco and K. C. Porter, A medio vivir was born. This was the album, released in 1995, that featured the famous “María,” a song I am extremely proud of—and which was, at the end of the day, the song that made me a star and changed my life forever.
    In life, there is always the temptation of wanting everything at once, like right now . When we chase a dream we see it all so clearly, and it’s normal to want it to become a reality right away, or at least as soon as possible. But as we all well know, things in life are never simple. The path toward one’s goals is often full of obstacles, and by overcoming each obstacle in your own way, there is a lesson to learn. If I had not learned everything I learned during Me amarás , perhaps I wouldn’t have been ready to collaborate with Robi and K.C. and accomplish what we did together on A medio vivir . It was an album that would change my life in many ways, although I didn’t know it at the time. So by the beginning of 1996, my career as a solo artist was starting to really take off, but I was still missing one critical step before fully coming face-to-face with my destiny. This time the call came from New York, specifically from Broadway, where I was invited to perform in the popular musical Les Misérables .
    I am an artist because I love music and I adore the stage. In this sense, musicals seamlessly fuse my two passions, acting and scene work with music, which is why some of the most magical moments in my life occurred when I was asked to perform on Broadway. It was an incredible challenge, and every night I was surrounded by supremely talented individuals in an atmosphere of absolute creativity. I made it my point to take it all in and enjoy every single moment.
    Like so many other things in my life, Les Misérables came to my life totally unexpectedly. It was thanks to an interview I did for the Miami Herald , in which I was asked, “What have you not done yet that you would really like to do?”
    Without hesitation, I had answered: “I’d like to perform in a Broadway play.”
    I said it because it was of course true, but I would have never imagined what came next. A few days after that interview was published, I got a call from Richard Jay-Alexander, the associate director and executive producer of Les Misérables . He told me he had read the article, and with very little preamble he offered me the role of Marius Pontmercy.
    Once again, I was not required to audition. They didn’t even test me—nothing. They simply handed me the role. And of course I accepted right then and there.
    Many people might think it is a question of luck. But more than luck, I believe that after almost fifteen years of working like a madman, the time had come for me to reap the benefits of all my efforts.
    Thus began eleven extraordinary weeks before a packed theater, fully booked night after night. I was later told that tour operators from Latin America even organized trips to New York so that their clients could see me in the show. What an honor! I think that was the role of my life, and if they offered it to me again, I would take it in a heartbeat. It is common to hear some of the great Hollywood actors say in interviews that their favorite roles have been on Broadway, and honestly, I can completely relate. It is a very intimate and challenging experience, so it does not surprise me that it is something that many dream of doing again, again, and again.
    Some eight years after I performed in Les Misérables , I ran into Richard Jay-Alexander at a restaurant in New York.
    “Marius, my Marius! You’ll always be my Marius,” he exclaimed. “Ricky, I gotta tell you the truth: Victor Hugo wrote that character for you.”
    I could not believe