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The Spark!

Ricky Martin talks ‘letting go of sadness’ on new album with Bad Bunny and Sting and how his family helped

The 48-year-old dropped his surprise EP ‘Pausa’ and had the help of his family when putting it together


Ricky Martin’s latest project was born out of sadness due to the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic and the unknown, but has a joyous result. On Friday, May 29, the 48-year-old Latin music superstar put healing power into the world with his six song EP, Pausa. “I started working on this album many, many months ago,” he tells HOLA! USA. “To be honest everything that I have worked on in this last 65 days of being in full lockdown is music.”

Ricky Martin released part one of his two EP series©Jwan Yosef
Ricky Martin released part one of his two EP series

Pausa, is part one of the roll out of music. For now, the Tiburones singer wants the world to take a beat and heal. “The uncertainty of where I was, the sadness of letting go,” he says about its inspiration. “And the celebration of actually reaching that level of acceptance is going to be part of this EP. The party, later on, when it’s time to press play.”

Ricky made this album a family affair. His husband Jwan Yosef became photographer and videographer while their 11-year-old twins Valentino and Matteo became music critics and helped dad select the songs for the EP. “They‘re picky and they love music,” he told Entertainment Tonight. “When I come home with something that they don’t like, they have no filters. They tell you.”

The songs that made the cut include Latin music superstars, Bad Bunny, Pedro Capó, Carla Morrison, Residente and Diego El Cigala. However, it was working with Sting that resulted in his favorite song, Simple. “It’s raw; it’s honest and is that song that helped me get out of the hole that I was in,” he shares. “It talks about simplicity. It talks about big things that should be simple.” In this edition of The Spark, Ricky explains the healing power of Pausa and tells us what to look forward to when it’s time to hit Play.

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