Beiruting News

THIRTY years after Ricky Martin got his start in music in the Puerto Rican kids' group "Menudo," the Grammy-winning singer uses his music and celebrity status to help fight against the trafficking of children.

Fresh off a new album, A Quien Quiera Escuchar, the 43-year-old Martin said he relishes getting in front of a crowd to talk about children forced into prostitution and pornography.

"Not only in Puerto Rico, all over the world, here in the United States, huge numbers, when it comes to kids that are becoming slaves," Martin told Reuters in an interview this week.

The Livin' la Vida Loca singer opened a centre in Puerto Rico last year to combat oppression against children.

His other big cause, he said, is the "fight of my community, the LGBT community, it's something that I won't get tired of".

Martin, father of twin boys born via surrogate, expressed his disappointment on social media and joined Elton John's campaign in boycotting Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana after Dolce described children born to gay couples through fertility treatment as "synthetic".

Martin declined to discuss further the Dolce & Gabbana controversy.