Posts Tagged ‘Ricky Martin’

Ricky Martin becomes father of twins via surrogate mother

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

Wednesday 20th August, 2008

Latin pop singer Ricky Martin has become the father of two twin boys who were born via a surrogate mother, according to a statement from the star’s representative.

‘In recent weeks, Ricky Martin became a proud father by the birth of twin sons,’ the statement said. ‘The children, delivered via gestational surrogacy, are healthy and already under Ricky’s full-time care.

‘Ricky is elated to begin this new chapter in his life as a parent and will be spending the remainder of the year out of the public spotlight in order to spend time with his children.

The boys’ names and the location of their birth were not released. The identity of the surrogate mother was also undisclosed.

The 36-year-ol ‘Livin’ La Vida Loca’ singer is a longtime supporter of children’s causes around the globe through his Ricky Martin Foundation.

Gossip columnists have often identified Martin as gay, but he has refused to comment on his sexuality.

Backstreet Boys at work on new album, solo disc

Saturday, July 26th, 2008

Detroit, July 26: Backstreet Boys Howie Dorough and AJ McLean are continuing to work on their first solo projects even as the group has started work on its sixth studio album.Dorough tells Billboard.com that "AJ's about done" with his album, while Dorough is "probably close to halfway there." He's been working with Jon Secada and George Noriega (who has produced records by Ricky Martin, Shakira and Jennifer Lopez) on an album that Dorough says will explore the Latin roots of his mother's family, which hails from Puerto Rico."I've always embraced the Latin rhythms, the Latin sounds, just the music itself," says Dorough, who even considered joining Menudo when he was younger. "It's just such a feel-good music, and I've always looked up to people like Jon Secada, Ricky Martin, Enrique (Iglesias), who have done a good crossover.Dorough describes his album as "kind of Latin-ish, English, Spanglish. It's just a mixture of my American roots in pop music meets my Latin roots. It's gonna be a good, kind of eclectic mixture.Release dates for both his and McLean's albums are up in the air, however. "Obviously Backstreet's always gonna be No. 1," Dorough says. "It's a matter of timing, when we feel each of us wants our record to come out so that we're not competing with each other or taking time away that we could be working … as a group.The group, in fact, has already started working on its follow-up to last year's "Unbreakable," recording new material while on tour in Europe. Dorough says they plan to hit the studio after their tour of North America, which starts Tuesday in St John's, Newfoundland, and wraps September 6 in Seattle."We're looking at getting back into the studio quite quickly," says Dorough. "We want to hopefully have something ready to go or at least be heavily into it by the end of the year and have something out towards the beginning of next year.