Obama with his daughters Malia (left) and Sasha. (AP)

Washington, March 3 (AP): Barack Obama says his two daughters are fans of Hannah Montana and Beyonce, but think anything to do with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton is “yuck”.

The Democratic presidential contender told celebrity magazine Us Weekly that his daughters, Malia, 9, and Sasha, 6, got to meet Beyonce backstage at a concert and “they just love her to death”.

“They’re pretty down on Britney and Paris and all of that. They think that’s very ‘yuck’”, he said.

As for his wife, Michelle, Obama said she has a star crush on Stevie Wonder.

“I’ve been teasing her because Stevie fell off the stage at one of our events,” Obama said. “I said to her: ‘This is your favourite performer, and you push him off the stage?’ Fortunately, he was OK.”

The Illinois senator described himself as a “pretty cool” dad who tries not to embarrass his daughters even when he is dancing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, as he did in October.

Though campaigning keeps him away from his family, Obama has not skipped a parent-teacher conference. “He did miss one of Sasha’s dance recitals in December and was broken up about it,” Michelle Obama told the magazine. “No one wants to miss 20 6-year-olds in red cowboy hats tapping to These Boots Are Made for Walkin.’”

Hip hop support

The hip-hop mogul, Russell Simmons, said yesterday he is endorsing Barack Obama for President, inspired by the diversity among the Illinois senator’s supporters.

Obama has built an unprecedented national movement of people from all ethnic, racial, political, social and economic backgrounds.

It was a little more than a year ago that Simmons sounded as if he was having a hard time deciding. “If you could take Barack Obama’s image, add Hillary Clinton's money and John Edwards’ voice, that would be my candidate,” Simmons said in January 2007.