Martin mania

Three burning questions about Ricky Martin:

WHERE DID HE COME FROM?

We all know and love the artist currently known as Ricky Martin - the leather-panted Latin heartthrob, the Hispanic Elvis, singer of Livin' La Vida Loca and Shake Your Bon-Bon, call him what you will.

Performing Tuesday in a nearly sold-out Skyreach Centre, the 28-year-old entertainer is a bona fide superstar - but this is actually his second 15 minutes of fame.

Sixteen years ago, he was known as "Kiki" and alternately as "Ricky II," member of the biggest boy group since the Jackson Five: Menudo. The group's English language debut, Reaching Out, took the continent by storm.

Created in 1977 by svengali Edgardo Diaz in Puerto Rico, Menudo was dead serious about maintaining its youthful integrity. Once a group member reached the age of 17, he succumbed to a strange space virus which rapidly aged its victims until they went insane and died. OK, that was Star Trek, but the truth was just as horrible. Old Menudo members were replaced, never to be heard from again (with at least one notable exception, of course).

Such a fate befell Menudo's original Ricky, Ricky Melendez, just as the group broke in America. A new Ricky was needed and young Enrique Martin Morales, who had wanted to be an entertainer since he was a little boy, fit the bill. Initially rejected because he looked too young, "Little Ricky" was in the group for six years - working in what he described as a "military" atmosphere - until he, too, was replaced.

Menudo had a good run that lasted until about 1990, when two of the group members (not Little Ricky) were arrested for possession of marijuana and fired. Although it paved the way for New Kids on the Block and more to come, Menudo's very name is now a punchline. (The group still exists, by the way, under the name "MDO." The age rule has since been lifted.)

Ricky Martin, however, bounced back. After a year of unemployment in New York, he moved to Mexico, where he made his name in musical theatre. He also began to make records. He actually recorded four before many up here had ever heard of him: a self-titled debut, Me Amaras, A Medio Vivir and Vuelve.

Martin moved to Los Angeles in 1993 and landed the role of Miguel Morez in General Hospital. Meanwhile, he was becoming one of the top Latin singing stars, with No. 1 hits in nearly every country but America. Something had to pop. Priming the public for the release of his English language debut, Martin performed La Copa de la Vida (theme song of the 1998 World Cup) on the 1999 Grammy awards. The jaded industry crowd went nuts. It was like throwing a match on a pile of gas-soaked rags. Ricky Martin's star was launched, and with it, a media-fuelled Latin mania swept the music industry.

IS HE GAY OR WHAT?

A good question, perhaps, but irrelevant. Gay men certainly number among Martin's fans and the singer was on the cover of the July, 1999 issue of gay magazine The Advocate, but the hordes of his smitten female fans don't seem to care. Martin himself seems to prefer keeping his sexual orientation a mystery.

As he told The Toronto Sun last summer, "There are things that I want to keep for myself, to be one step ahead of everybody. And those things that I don't talk about, that's where they go to. My intimacy and everything. Once again, we go back to fantasy. Think whatever you want to think! I'm up for it! Go for it ... What's the difference between you, me, gay, lesbian? I hate these walls and these boundaries, I think they're so stupid, and judging things, and life is so short. Be happy, be who you are and love."

He also has a girlfriend, Mexican TV show host Rebecca de Alba - but Elton John had a girlfriend, too.

Post-feminist Camille Paglia observed, "There's something uncontrolled and vaguely queeny about Martin's pelvic gyrations that wasn't part of the Dionysian tribal oscillation of the early, ecstatic Elvis Presley or the lascivious Tom Jones."

Queeny?

WHAT'S NEXT?

A book, a TV show, a movie, a restaurant franchise, a new album, the sky's the limit!

The next album is going to be "an Anglish project," he told The Toronto Sun. "English and Spanish."

Names surfacing for the next album include Desmond Child, Emilio Estefan and Madonna producer William Orbit. He continues, "It's funny that it took us 21/2 years to record this album, the one I'm presenting at the moment. It's not going to take me 21/2 years to record the next one, but I'm going to have to start working right now, and very simple. My projects are not scientific projects. My albums are made out of emotions. So we just need that time to detach from everything and dare to be ourselves."

With his world tour in full swing, he says it probably won't be until late 2000 until a new CD is ready.

Until then, Ricky-mania continues unabated. A few seats remain for Tuesday's show. Call Ticketmaster at 451-8000 for details.

THE FACTS OF RICKY

Born: Dec. 24, 1971, Hato Rey, Puerto Rico.

First TV exposure: Soda commercial at age seven.

First favourite TV show: Le Gente Joven de Menudo, hosted by Menudo.

Joined Menudo: 1984, at the age of 12.

TV appearance: The Love Boat.

Left Menudo: July 10, 1989, at the age of 17.

Weakness: Chocolate.

Restuarant: Casa Salsa in Miami, opened in 1998.

Grammy: Best Latin Pop Performance, 1999.

Book: Ricky Martin: La Historia Verdadera.

Voice: Of Hercules on the Spanish edition of the Disney animated film.

TV role: Miguel Morez in General Hospital

Stage role: In Les Miserables on Broadway.

Magazine covers: The Advocate, Time, among others.

Albums: Ricky Martin (1992), Me Amaras (1993), A Medio Vivir (1995), Vuelve (1998) and Ricky Martin (1999).