Ricky Martin album delayed again

Ricky Martin's long-delayed third English-language album has been pushed back again, amid rumours of dissatisfaction among executives at Columbia Records.

Last July, Martin said the as-yet-unnamed CD would be out by October. But now a representative for the Puerto Rican-born singer tells the New York Daily News: “It’s loosely on the schedule for March 2004.”

The newspaper quotes a source as saying that poor sales on Martin’s last English album, released in 2000, did not satisfy Sony bosses. Sound Loaded sold a disappointing 1.6 million copies, even though Sony spent an estimated 20 million dollars on promotion.

The source said: “The brass at Columbia didn’t like some of the English songs he wrote on the new album. They told him they were going to hold off on that CD, but they needed something to put out to keep him topical.” So they moved up his recent Spanish-language album, Almas del Silencio, whose sales have been strong.

But a Columbia spokeswoman denied the timing was a result of pressure from the label.

“It was definitely on the game plan to have two albums come out at the same time, but then Ricky decided he wanted to have the Spanish one first,” she said. “He needed to go back to his people, back to his roots.”