“I’m thrilled to be headlining LA Pride in the Park because it’s an incredible opportunity to celebrate love, diversity, and equality,” Ricky Martin said in a statement. Photo: Provided by LA Pride
Get ready to shake your bon bons.
Ricky Martin is scheduled to headline LA Pride, the first time he has ever performed at a Pride event.
“I’m thrilled to be headlining LA Pride in the Park because it’s an incredible opportunity to celebrate love, diversity, and equality,” Martin, 52, said in a statement.
“LA Pride is a testament to the power of community, the power of visibility, and the power of standing up for our rights,” the multi-Grammy Award winner said. “Being part of this vibrant community fills me with pride and purpose.”
The concert will take place June 8 at Pride in the Park at LA State Historic Park, which has a 25,000 capacity.
Tickets start at $99 plus service fees.
In previous years, Pride in the Park has been a two-day event. Last year, Mariah Carey and Megan Thee Stallion headlined.
Additional artists will be announced in the coming weeks, according to the LA Pride statement.
Enrique “Ricky” Martín Morales was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and first appeared in television commercials at age nine. Martin’s musical career started at 12 as a member of Puerto Rican boy band Menudo.
Martin began his solo career in 1991.
In March 2010, Martin publicly came out as gay through a message posted on his website.
“I am proud to say that I am a fortunate homosexual man,” he said. “I am very blessed to be who I am.”
As the first mainstream Latin music artist to come out, Martin’s coming out was a game-changer for Latin Pride.
“With Martin’s announcement, gay artists, who had long kept their sexual identities a secret, finally had a beacon of hope,” Lucas Villa wrote in Billboard in 2020. “If Martin could come out with his career unscathed, there was hope for other artists in Latin music to start doing the same.”
Villa added that since then, “a growing number of Latin artists have either come out after years in the spotlight, or many have simply started their careers by embracing their gay identities.”
