Enrique Iglesias and Ricky Martin at Staples Center

The biggest Latin pop tour of the year stopped at the Staples Center (soon to be Crypto.com Arena). The Latin pop Kings, Enrique Iglesias (B. Madrid, Spain) and Ricky Martin (B. San Juan, Puerto Rico) and opener Sebastian Yatra (B. Medellin, Colombia) finally got to perform in Los Angeles, CA (11/18 & 19) after the show was postponed from September 2020. For the first night Enrique Iglesias closed the show. Iglesias and Martin are both crossover artists having major hits in both Spanish and English. On this night Iglesias was the closer.

Iglesias became one of the biggest artists in Latin music in the early 2000’s starting with playing sold out shows across 16 countries in the late 90s to winning an AMA for ‘Favorite Latin Artist’ against Ricky Martin and Chayanne. Iglesias ended the decade with the number one song “Bailamos” from the Will Smith movie Wild Wild West (1999). This was followed by signing a major record deal with Interscope records and releasing his debut album in November of 1999. Iglesias began the next decade (2000’s) performing at the Super Bowl XXXIV HalfTime Show with Phil Collins, Christina Aguilera, and Toni Braxton. Over the next 20 years Iglesias performed on numerous major award shows like the Grammys and MTV VMAS to major talk shows like Jimmy Kimmel, Ellen, and the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Iglesias has also performed on The Voice and So You Think You Can Dance.

Since 1997, Iglesias has had 11 headlining tours, a co-headline with J-Lo, and two co-headlines with Pitbull prior to this tour. Iglesias has released a total of 11 studio albums, four which were number ones in his home country of Spain and nearly each achieving between Gold and 3x platinum status in the U.S. Iglesias has over 60 singles of which five made the Billboard top five in the Hot 100 and has the record for Spanish number ones on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks chart with 27 singles. On top of that Iglesias has had 14 Billboard Dance/ Club song charts which is more than any other male artist. Iglesias released his latest album Final just two months ago which was his first release in seven years. From Final Iglesias performed both “Chasing the Sun” “Subleme la radio” and “Me Pase.”

Iglesias opened with “I’m a Freak,” and performed a total of 17 songs which ended with a four song encore of “Hero,” “El perdon,” “Bailando”, and “I Like It,” The stage all the three artists used included a cat walk which they all used, however Iglesias had a secondary stage (c-stage) behind the soundboard which he performed on in the middle of his show. Iglesias had great effects including flames.

Ricky Martin’s breakthrough success in the U.S. came with his self-titled album in 1999 which was actually his fifth studio album. Ricky Martin included both “Livin’ la Vida Loca'', and “Shake Your Bon-Bon.” That album was nominated for 10 different awards, half of which Martin won and went 7x Platinum and was number one in multiple countries. The 1998 FIFA World Cup theme “The Cup of Life,” was on that album as well. Martin’s follow-up album Sound Loaded (2000) included the hit “She Bangs,” which came to fame once again when it was performed by William Hung on American Idol in 2007 and he became famous from it. Martin has released a total of 10 studio albums, four which went to number one on the Billboard Latin Chart. Martin has had over 20 TV appearances including acting roles on The Love Boat, General Hospital, and Glee. Martin has performed on Saturday Night Live and Britain’s Got Talent, as well as hosting the 20th Latin Grammys.

Martin kicked off his fiery set with none other than “Livin’ la Vida Loca.” Martin’s set included a total of 14 songs including the hits mentioned above and the finale was “Cup of Life.” Martin was a lot of fun to watch between his band and dancers and just his energy all together, not to mention his great dance moves.

This incredible tour ended the following day (11/20) at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA.

Enrique Igesias Setlist: