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Marc Anthony
Marc Anthony is the first record in English by a singer who has
twice sold out Madison Square Garden, starred in a Broadway
musical (Paul Simon's "The Capeman"), appeared in significant
roles in several movies, including Martin Scorsese's
soon-to-be-released "Bringing Out the Dead," and sold more
records throughout the world than any other salsa singer. In places
where Spanish is spoken, and especially in Puerto Rico, Anthony
is held in a regard that approaches reverence. A man in Spanish
Harlem, quoted in a profile of Anthony in The New Yorker, said of
him, "He is like a flame that walks."
"When I Dream at Night," the first song on Marc Anthony, was
written by Dan Shea and Robin Thicke. Its chorus begins "'Cause I
only feel alive/ When I dream at night/ Even though she's not real
it's all right."
"It's sort of a custom-made love song," Anthony says. "The three of
us were talking about subjects for songs, and I told them a story I
was going through. 'There's a situation,' I said, 'There's this girl in
my dreams that I see all the time.'"
Anthony feels disinclined to choose his favorite among the songs
on the record—"They're all like my kids," he says--but he is
especially fond of two of them, "Am I the Only One," and "My Baby
You."
"As far as painting a picture," he says, "the first song lyrically that
I'm proudest of is 'Am I the Only One.' I tried to capture loneliness
between this couple that have gone wrong and aren't exactly sure
why.
"'My Baby You' is written for my daughter, Arianna, who is six. I
wrote it so that she could understand it. It's a daddy professing his
love."
Anthony is thirty-one. Born in New York's Spanish Harlem, he was
given the name Marco Antonio Muniz by his father, Felipe, a
musician, for a famous Mexican singer and became Marc Anthony
to avoid becoming confused with the older man. As recently as six
years ago, Anthony was singing in English in dance clubs in New
York City. A respectable audience was a hundred people. He
specialized in a tersely minimal form of dance music called house
music, in which a singer repeats a phrase over and over, with slight
variations, to the accompaniment of a rhythm track recorded on a
DAT. He also frequently sang background on records with a band
called the Latin Rascals, who worked with a producer called Little
Louis Vega. When Vega received a contract from Atlantic Records,
in 1991, he asked Anthony to be his singer. None of their records
was especially successful, but one of them, "Rebel," was a hit in
the clubs. It occasionally still turns up in second-hand record
stores in Manhattan.
In 1992, the Latin percussionist and bandleader Tito Puente asked
Vega and Anthony to open his revue at Madison Square Garden.
After singing before such an enormous crowd, Anthony lost his
appetite for appearing in clubs. His manager suggested that he sing
in Spanish but he wasn't interested. When he was a small boy, his
father would invite musicians to the family's apartment on Saturday
nights and they would set up in the kitchen and play half the night.
Anthony's father would put him on the table to sing. "I had two
sets," Anthony says. "Six and eight." His repertoire consisted of a
single song, "El Zolsar," about a kind of bird that lives in Puerto
Rico. "He had only that one song," his father says, "but he could
belt it." Growing up, Anthony listened mostly to rhythm & blues and
to rock. Several months into his hiatus, he was driving in a car in
Manhattan and he heard a song on the radio by a singer named
Juan Gabriel. "It was called 'Hasta Que Te Conoci,'" Anthony says,
"which means, 'Until I Met You,' and it ripped me apart. I don't know
why and I don't want to know why. I called my manager and asked
if I could record this in salsa."
Acclaim arrived so suddenly in Anthony's life that he describes its
appearance by saying, "I saw my old life shattered." In 1993, he
recorded the song he'd heard in the car. His manager then sent him
to perform at a Latin music convention called Radio y Musica.
Anthony brought with him a DAT that contained the song's musical
tracks. He was living at the time on so little money that the clothes
he performed in were borrowed. In the audience were mainly disc
jockeys. When he took the stage one person clapped. His hand on
the microphone trembled. He closed his eyes and thought, 'Make
believe you're singing in your living room to your mom,' and when he
finished he left the stage so quickly that his manager had to grab
him and point out that he was receiving a standing ovation. Several
of the disc jockeys were dialing their cell phones. "Find this kid's
CD," he heard one of them say. "I threw it out this morning--it's in
the trash. Find it and play it!"
Later that day, he appeared on a television show called "Carnival
Internacional," which is broadcast all over the world. "That changed
my life forever," he says. "I mean in one day. It seemed like years
before I was ever in New York again. I was booked and booked and
booked--Panama, Ecuador, Argentina, Colombia, Puerto Rico,
Miami, Los Angeles. I woke up once in the middle of the night in a
hotel and didn't know where I was. I called my brother's room and
said, 'Where are we?' He said, 'Look out the window.' All I could
see was a city at night. Tokyo. I thought, 'How did this happen?'"
Anthony was the first actor Paul Simon cast in "The Capeman."
Simon had gone to a record store and asked for the records of the
best young salsa singer. "They gave me two or three guys," he
says, "and I listened to his and thought, This is good. In fact, really
good. In fact, he was clearly the best." During the musical's
rehearsals, Anthony was releasing his third salsa album, Contra la
Corriente (Against the Current) which was certified RIAA gold out of
the box. Because of his obligation to the musical he wasn't able to
promote the record, so as a farewell of a kind, he gave a concert at
Madison Square Garden. No salsa singer had ever gone into the
Garden except as a member of a revue. Anthony sold every seat in
the house, and a year later did it again.
Having sung exclusively in Spanish, except in "The Capeman,"
Anthony has managed to remain relatively undiscovered in
America. With the release of Marc Anthony he is likely, once
again, to see his old life shattered.
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Marc Anthony
Discography
Marc Anthony
1999
Desde Un Principio
1999
Contra La Corriente
1997
Todo A Su Tiempo
1995
Otra Nota
1993
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More Marc Anthony sites:
Official website
Unofficial Marc Anthony site
Marc Anthony Photo Site
My Marc Anthony World
Marc Anthony Fan page
Marc Anthony's Pad
Salsa singer Marc Anthony
Nadie Como Marc Anthony
The Cape Man
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