Forever proud of his roots, Martin would always introduce himself as a singer from the Philippines every time he would perform abroad. When he first performed in Las Vegas in spring (summer here in the Philippines), in fact, he kept telling his audience night after night (and this was for a whole month) where he comes from to the point that the hotel management already had told him there was really no need to do so. "The hotel had to ask me to stop mentioning so much about where I come from because it was starting to sound like I was running for public office," laughs Martin.
Two weeks ago, I had the chance to talk to Martin at the birthday party of his mother, Conchita Razon and at the same time despedida party for him at the Dasmariñas Village home of Speaker and Mrs. Jose de Venecia. (All the arrangements were by Mrs. Marichu Maceda, who is the bestfriend of Martins Mom.)
Middle of December, Martin left for the US for rehearsals but returned immediately to spend the holidays with his family.
But the day after Christmas, Martin left once more for Las Vegas to finally start his Golden Nuggets Hotel shows, which would last all the way till Feb. 29. His contract after that may be extended for another two months which means that he should leave March and April also free in his calendar of activities. After that, he still has series of shows to do all over the US and this would require him to be away from Manila for about a year.
The Las Vegas stage where he will be performing, may I point out, is the same stage were Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Tony Bennett and other big names in the American music industry started. "Thats the stage where Frank Sinatra stood," Martin says excitedly, "his (former) dressing room is now my dressing room, his bathroom is my bathroom "
Of course, as the hotels in-house singer, Martin will also be provided with his own suite actually a two-story room with winding stairs, a fabulous living room, dining area, its own bar and a butler service.
When the Golden Nuggets Hotel was trying him out about six months ago, Martin was pleasantly surprised to see his name and face being advertised on a billboard right on the Las Vegas strip. If Martin was delighted over that one, his mother, Conchita, was delirious. Martin himself relates the story: "My Mom and the whole family also went to Las Vegas to support me that time. From the airport, we took the car limousine siempre para ma-impress ang nanay ko. I didnt say anything about the billboard first until we got there. Then, I pointed it out to her, Oh, Mom, theres my billboard. She broke down."
According to Martin, there were reasons why his mother broke down upon seeing his billboard on the Las Vegas strip. The first reason was that she was so proud to see her sons face and name on a billboard especially since this was Las Vegas and it was the first youll see on the strip.
And then it turned out that the place where the billboard was installed was exactly on the same spot where a restaurant once stood and this was where the Society of Seven (of which Martins Dad, Bert Nievera) would eat night after night after a gig in the 60s. "For my Mom, it was like, oh my God, history was repeating itself. There was the Society of Seven in the 60s and an offspring of Bert Nievera now has his billboard right where their favorite sandwich place stood. In the beginning, I was telling my Mom to stop crying na. O, sige, youre proud of me I get it. And then, she tells me, You dont understand, this is sacred ground for the family."
As of this writing, Martin should now be on US soil getting ready for his Vegas act in Golden Nuggets and rehearsing mostly Frank Sinatra songs (his band members are Tom Jones/Ricky Martin remnants who had decided to stay behind in Las Vegas). Before he left I got to ask if theres still any way we could stop him from leaving his beloved Filipino audience behind to try it out in Vegas and this was what he told me: "I was really close to not going because I had nights when Id wake up crying just thinking, my God, what am I doing? Is this the right thing? And when Im with my kids, I cant stop crying in my mind because I have to leave them behind. Its bad enough that I am a weekend father and now this My friends in the industry tell me Im crazy because they say Im doing very well here and Im leaving that behind. But if I didnt try it out there, that would be my biggest regret when Im old and in my rocking chair. Id tell myself, I had the chance to do it nung bata pa ako nung malakas pa ako. Why didnt I do it?
If you ask me, I say, go for it, Martin! Surely, we will miss you and your talent here. But there are times when you have to be unselfish and we just have to share him at this point with Vegas and yes, the world.