''Life'' is the eighth studio album and the third English album recorded by Puerto Rican performer

Ricky Martin Enrique Martín Morales (born December 24, 1971), known professionally as Ricky Martin, is a Puerto Rican singer, songwriter, and actor. He is known for his musical versatility, with his Ricky Martin albums discography, discography spanning ...

. It was released by Columbia Records on October 10, 2005 in Europe, October 11, 2005 in the US and October 19, 2005 in Japan.

Background and development

Martin co-wrote most of the songs on ''Life''. He said that this album is one of his most personal releases to date, explaining, "I was really in touch with my emotions. I think this album is very multi-layered, just like life is. It's about feeling anger. It's about feeling joy. It's about feeling uncertainty. It's about feeling. And all my emotions are part of this production". The album was recorded in the United States and Egypt.

Commercial performance

The album has sold 694,000 copies worldwide. ''Life'' debuted at number six on the ''Billboard'' 200 with nearly 73,000 copies sold. In total, the album has sold 274,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. ''Life'' also reached the top ten in Argentina and Spain. In the United Kingdom it peaked at number forty. The album was later certified Gold in Argentina and Mexico. The first single, " I Don't Care" peaked at number sixty-five on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and reached number three on the Hot Dance Club Songs. The Spanish-language version, called "Qué Más Da" peaked at number seven on the Hot Latin Songs. "I Don't Care" reached also top ten in Italy and Finland. In the United Kingdom, it peaked at number eleven. The second international single, " It's Alright" became a hit in France, after it was re-recorded as duet with

M. Pokora Matthieu Tota (; born 26 September 1985), artistically known as Matt Pokora and later M. Pokora (), is a French pop and R&B singer. In 2016, he became a coach for ''The Voice Kids France'' and '' The Voice: la plus belle voix''. Early life ...

. It peaked at number four and was certified Silver.

Copy protection controversy

In the fall of 2005, the album appeared on a list of the 52 CD releases from Sony BMG that were identified as having been shipped with the controversial

Extended Copy Protection Extended Copy Protection (XCP) is a software package developed by the British company First 4 Internet (which on 20 November 2006, changed its name to Fortium Technologies Ltd) and sold as a copy protection or digital rights management (DRM) schem ...

(XCP)

computer software Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...

, which, in addition to preventing a copy of the disc from being made, was identified by many security software vendors as having also reported the users' listening habits back to Sony and also exposed any Microsoft Windows computer known to have the CD inserted to malicious attacks that exploited insecure features of the rootkit software. Sony discontinued use of the technology on November 11, 2005, and recalled this and other titles affected by XCP, and asked customers to submit copies affected by the software to the company so that it could replace them with copies that did not contain the software.

Track listing

Notes * signifies a co-producer * signifies a vocal producer * signifies a background vocal producer * signifies a remix producer

Charts

Certifications and sales

Release history

References

{{Authority control 2005 albums Ricky Martin albums Columbia Records albums Albums produced by Scott Storch Albums produced by Sean Garrett Albums produced by the Matrix (production team) Albums produced by Luny Tunes