November 2, 1996. 25.8 degrees the maximum in the City of Buenos Aires. Thousands of people approached the Obelisk. “Ladies and gentlemen, and the day has arrived, the time has come, the great celebration of Ricky, Ricky, Ricky Martin ”, announced Juan Alberto Mateyko and with his voice in off added: “In minutes it will transcend time and distance. Since July 9 via satellite for millions of people ”.
This is how that milestone began, one more of the many in the career of the Puerto Rican who turns 50 today and who at that time came to do The Miserables on Broadway and premiering his album Half live. Wearing a black velvet suit, white shirt and sunglasses, singing “Revolution”, the singer got off a large elevator to the stage and began to dance with his staff.
Juan Alberto Mateyko, host of the great show, recalled in dialogue with Teleshow: “I had just had a meniscus operation and they took me from my house until July 9, I was on crutches. It was a record of people. Ricky and his manager at the time wanted me to introduce it. My participation was very brief because I did not want to go in and be embarrassed with the crutches, and if I took them off, I could stand for a while and balance, but I had just had an operation ”.
For the driver of The Summer Movement, being there was “A party” and something he did “with all the love in the world” since although he was rehabilitating to be well for the season, he had a very good relationship with the interpreter of songs such as “Fire at night, snow by day” or “Volverás”. “I was doing time until the appointed time and there they gave me the microphone and I said two or three things about that night and announced to RickyIt was one of the biggest ovations and it seemed that the stage was moving ”. Due to his operation, he could not stay to see the full show.
At a time when there were no massively cell phones, there were no social networks and the Internet was being born, that show “He traveled the world”, highlighted the driver who today resides in Córdoba: “He was an advanced man and he is where he is by accident, but because he is a great worker, From Menudo that I met him, until he detaches himself and launches himself as a solo singer, to one of the first programs that he went, he went to The summer show, which was held in the Torreón del Monje, Mar del Plata ”.
How did you see the idol that night? “We greet each other, it was a greeting not of commitment, but of gratitude from both of us. He was impatient for the recital to start, very enthusiastic happy. That show, it was the first time I did something on July 9, it was recorded in the collective unconscious of the people because of what it represented and the repercussion, there were many people watching ”.
“I had a dream and you make it come true, I am going to leave my soul on this stage and I hope you are part of it, this is a party”, Said Ricky Martin and so it was. Is that according to Mateyko, “When he proposed to do something, he succeeded” and also highlighted that as an artist “he loved and cared for what he did.”
One of the strongest moments of the night was when before singing “A medio vivir”, whose title is the same as the album, he explained why he chose it: “Apart from being a very beautiful love letter from Franco de Vita, it is a concern that I have as a human being, the fact of opening a newspaper in the morning and seeing how the planet is killing itself little by little ”. At the age of 24, when there was still more than a decade to go before the births of Matteo, Valentino, Renn and Lucía, he added: “I am young and I want to have children, who grow up in a healthy environment. There are many things, drugs, AIDS, little respect for each individual, we are just before the end of the millennium and the only key to success is to love each other, it is a call for peace, no matter what decade we are in ”.
A show of that magnitude or a program like The move that in one night I could bring Shakira, Julio Iglesias, Miguel Bossé and Marco Antonio Solís together on stage, it seems impossible to do today, due to a cost issue and because the world changed: the immediacy of the networks, the way of listening music. “That was an unforgettable time, that concert did not have alterations, demonstrations or people making trouble, it was a family show, because it attracted girls and boys, but also their mothers.”
With a lot of dancing and a guest band on stage, he said goodbye singing “One, two, three, a little step forward Maria, one, two, three one step backward …”. “God bless you, in peace we come and in peace we go, goodbye and I love you very much. Thanks a lot”, he interrupted the song to greet the thousands of people who accompanied him.
“I don’t have photos of that moment, it would have been great to have a cell phone like we have now at that moment”, he lamented Rox Silva vice president of the fans club Tú y yo Argentina, who has followed the Puerto Rican since he was ten years old when he launched Fire against fire and according to account, he fell in love. Of course, he was present on July 9: “I wanted to go with my cousin and they wouldn’t let us, I was fifteen, so we begged our families so much and we went with some older friends. It was the most beautiful thing I experienced at that time ”.
She and her people arrived around 7:00 p.m. and although it was “a sea of people that moved to the rhythm of the music”They were getting in to be as close as possible: “It was an explosive show, but without a doubt his ballads were incredible, such as when I sing ‘Fuego contra fuego’, ‘El amor de mi vida’, ‘Fuego at night, snow by day’ or ‘A medio vivir'”. Due to age and money, he could not go to other shows until in 2011 he decided to follow him anywhere and he met other girls who felt the same way about him and formed the fan club.
“For 10 years we have been accompanying Ricky and together with all our partners we do everything possible to ensure that our artist is at the top. We do meetings, promos and social work. The central headquarters, which is in Buenos Aires, we are very many and therefore we divide ourselves by zones to do social work and thus reach more places that really need help ”, he said about the double role they fulfill.
Similar was the case of Silvina, from the fans club Me amarás created in 1993, who liked Ricky since 1991 when he worked on the Mexican novel To reach a star. Towards the end of 96, she learned about the great show on TV, since it was sponsored by two large shopping malls that had opened in that decade and although with her fellow group members they had obtained VIP tickets through the shopping center to have better locations, they lined up a day before, to be even better: “We were close but we always wanted a little more.”
For her, who had already seen him at the Opera theater, the best moment of the show was when, accompanied by a murga, Ricky sang and danced the hit of that moment, “Mary”. “It was super special that Ricky did a free show in Argentina and more at the Obelisco. Unforgettable ”, she said, eager for it to be repeated.
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