Ricky Martin drops surprise EP, ‘Pausa’

In the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Ricky Martin has released an unexpected, six-track EP called Pausa ⁠— allowing not only himself, but fans too, to press “pause” during an extremely uncertain time.

As opposed to his signature upbeat Latin pop dance-hits, Pausa is a collection of extremely stripped-down, personal and melancholic songs.

The 21-minute spanning EP is comprised entirely of brand new material and features a variety of special guest collaborators, including Bad Bunny, Carla Morrison and former Police frontman Sting.

In light of the surprise release, Martin, 48, took to Twitter expressing his gratitude to all who helped make the project possible.

“It has been a job full of emotions and I am extremely satisfied with what we achieved,” he wrote.

So what happened to the supposedly upcoming album Movimiento, some fans might ask? Well, according to the Purto Rican pop star, he’s opted to release two polar opposite EPs, rather than his eleventh overall full-length effort this year.

During an interview with Billboard earlier this week, Martin suggested that Pausa was much more relevant to the time than that of Movimiento, adding that he plans to release a more upbeat, companion EP called Play in September.

“I like to party,” he told the outlet. “But it’s not the moment for that.”

Martin continued: “We had to change the concept and I’ve created two separate albums. Pausa is more chill and relaxed and hopefully in September we can release the second one called Play with more upbeat music.”

Though it was never given an official release date, Movimiento was initially slated to come out earlier this year.

Ahead of the global health crisis and subsequent ban of mass gatherings, Martin had even kicked off the critically acclaimed Movimiento tour back in February.

Whether Movimiento will ever see the light of day, however, is currently unclear.

Martin’s last original release, A Quien Quiera Escucha, came a whopping five years ago. The Grammy Award-winning Latin pop album served as his tenth overall and received critical acclaim upon its release in February 2015.

As of this writing, the Livin’ La Vida Loca‘s upcoming North American co-headlining tour with Enrique Iglesias has not been affected by the novel coronavirus.

On top of 19 concerts in the U.S., the multi-platinum musicians are scheduled to play two Canadian gigs this fall, visiting Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena on Oct. 8 and the Centre Bell in Montreal on Oct. 10.

Pausa is now available through all major streaming platforms.

Full Pausa tracklist:

1. Simple (ft. Sting)
2. Recuerdo (ft. Carla Morrison)
3. Cae de Una (ft. Pedro Capó)
4. Quiéreme (Diego El Cigala)
5. Tiburones
6. Cántalo (ft. Residente and Bad Bunny)