Spicing The Mix

By David E. Thigpen

A funny thing happened last week in Salt Lake City, Utah. After Ricky Martin's electrifying rendition of La Copa de la Vida performed the musical equivalent of CPR on a listless Grammy Awards telecast in Los Angeles, fans descended on Salt Lake's record stores and picked them clean of the Latin singer's albums. Runs on his albums were reported in L.A. and Miami too, but none was more surprising than the one in Salt Lake, a town better known for its allegiance to the Osmond Brothers than its enthusiasm for Latin pop. Grammy host Rosie O'Donnell summed up what a lot of English-speaking viewers must have been feeling about Martin when she declared, "I never heard of him before tonight, but I'm enjoying him so-o-o much."

Martin's house-wrecking performance may be a turning point not just for him but for all Latin pop in 1999. That's the hope, anyway, of a handful of U.S. record executives who are betting big that a pack of new Latin music stars can cross over and tap the vast English-speaking market. "I have no crystal ball, but my gut tells me that Latin music can be the next big reservoir of talent for mainstream superstars," says Sony Music chief Tommy Mottola, whose company is spending millions hiring market-savvy producers like Puff Daddy and David Foster to help Latin pop join country and hip-hop in the American mainstream.

Although Gloria Estefan crossed over in the late '80s, Latin pop remains foreign to most American listeners. Between now and August, Sony hopes to change that with four major releases--English-language debuts by Puerto Rican-born Martin, East Harlem salsa and stage star Marc Anthony, Bronx native and Hollywood star Jennifer Lopez and the Colombian vocal powerhouse Shakira.

Mottola has the wind at his back. Culturally and demographically, the Latin presence in the U.S. is being felt now as never before. Top-40 radio stations in New York City and Miami are increasingly eager to play Martin along with Tupac and Lauryn Hill, not to mention the unavoidable 1995 hit Macarena. What's more, Latin-genre record sales grew a healthy 21% last year. "Lots of different cultures are accepting Latin music," says Julio Vergara, program director of wskq, New York's top Spanish-language radio station.

Some stars may find the culture gap difficult to bridge, but others should be able to cross over easily. Lopez, already well known to English-speaking audiences as an actress, made a splash in the film and music worlds in 1997 with her persuasive portrayal of Selena. An early listen to her yet untitled June album shows she has an inviting, sultry voice, with plenty of poise. Produced by Puff Daddy, among others, the CD hedges its bets by blending disco-influenced R. and B. with a traditional Spanish flavor. "It's a mix of urban and Latin influences," says Lopez, "stuff that makes me dance."

The most potent singer of this bunch is Marc Anthony, who describes his August album as "not salsa, not dance, just pop." Anthony, who is said to be planning a duet with Madonna, will have to labor a little harder to introduce himself to English-speaking audiences, despite his fine work on Broadway in The Capeman and several small film roles. "When I go into stores in Times Square and ask for my album, they say it's in the back, in the international section," Anthony complains. "I recorded it on 47th Street! How can you get more local than that?"

Martin will shore up his gains with a new CD in May. Still glowing from his Grammy-night coup, he bubbled, "To see Will Smith doing the jiggy with my song! It's overwhelming." His current album, the throbbing Vuelve, catapulted back onto the pop charts this week.

Although she's still unknown in the U.S., Shakira says her summer album will "demonstrate to the rest of the world that Latin people also can make good pop and good rock." Her captivating looks should play well on MTV, and her album is being produced by the godfather of Latin pop, Emilio Estefan. Of course, all the producing and marketing in the world won't carry a bad record across the street. Latin pop will do fine in the English market just so long as its producers don't turn the music's soulfulness and extravagant passion--two things that make it different, and most worth listening to--into just more slick pop product.

--With reporting by Autumn De Leon/New York

With reporting by Autumn De Leon/New York