TOROTO -- Ricky Martin says lightning can strike twice in the career of a music artist.

The 29-year-old Puerto Rican pop star made the comment yesterday in Toronto when asked if he felt his super-hot status had faded leading up to his latest release, Sound Loaded. Maybe you recall his star-making performance of The Cup Of Life at the 1999 Grammys?

"Yeah, life is full of ups and downs but I think I'm still being supported by the audience," said Martin just hours before he and his 10-piece band performed an intimate show at the Guvernment last night for 1,000 people.

His new album was released three months ago.

"It has sold eight million copies, so it's fine," Martin said. "And we're still working on that second single (the Christina Aguilera duet, Nobody Wants To Be Lonely). We have a third one, Loaded, that will come for the summer."

The previous time Martin had performed in Toronto -- last spring -- it was in front of 25,000 fans at the SkyDome. The summer before that, he drew about 10,000 people to a record-signing on Yonge Street.

At his MuchMusic appearance this past Sunday night there were only 300 fans outside.

"Three-hundred people -- it was fine, no problem," said Martin, dressed in form-fitting clothes with a new, closely cropped haircut. "It was a Sunday night, it was cold. I was expecting nobody outside, in fact."

Since its Nov. 14 release, Sound Loaded has sold 300,000 copies in Canada and two million in the U.S.

Those numbers are impressive but they pale in comparison to his 1999 self-titled English-language debut, which sold more than a million copies in Canada, seven million in the U.S. and 15 million worldwide.

"Michael Jackson, he sold -- what was it? -- 35 million albums of Thriller, and then with his next album, I think it was Bad, he sold 20 (million). That doesn't mean he's less (of an artist). That doesn't mean he was doing something wrong. I think it's part of it all. Like, Madonna Like A Virgin is not the same as Madonna Music, but the music's still great. That's the way I see it."

But why, then, is Martin performing a string of club shows in support of Sound Loaded, rather than something bigger? In addition to Toronto, he has had club dates in Mexico City, Tokyo, London, Paris, L.A. and New York. The Mexico City gig was last Wednesday, Grammy night. Martin was nominated for She Bangs but lost to Sting for best male pop vocal.

Martin said the intimate shows are just a way of making his promotional duties more pleasant.

"I want to present my album not only in an interview, I want to present it live. It makes the promotional tour a little bit easier," he said. "And it's a little bit more complicated than me travelling alone. I have to travel with the whole band, but I need to be on stage. To be on stage is addictive. And for me the easiest way for me to 'sell my music' is being on stage. Later on, before the year is over, I'll be back to Canada with my concert, with my tour. That's the idea."

In the meantime, there's talk of Martin -- the one-time star of the soap opera General Hospital and Broadway's Les Miserables -- getting into movies. A report yesterday said production of Dirty Dancing 2, a sequel to the original 1987 film, might star Martin and Natalie Portman.

Martin gagged at the thought.

"I'm going to do Dirty Dancing?," he asked incredulously. "If I'm going to do film again, I would do something ... I'm not saying that Dirty Dancing is not interesting, but I would do something really interesting and I would do something that would affect society in a very positive way."

Speaking of which, Martin approved of the much-debated duet of Eminem and Elton John at the Grammys.

"This is about music. Music is art. It's not about who you go to bed with. And if they decided to get together on stage, well go for it, let them be. The fact that Eminem and Elton John were on stage together, I thought that was amazing. I thought it was great, and the final hug was great! And shut up and get a life!"