Menudo

Menudo originated with an assembly of endearing adolescent Puerto Ricans who each faced expulsion from the lineup upon reaching sixteen, establishing the ensemble as the first Latin act to attain worldwide recognition. The original roster assembled in 1977 around siblings Carlos, Oscar, and Ricky Melendez together with Nefty and Fernando Sallaberry, although the earliest changes occurred before the decade concluded. In the mid-1980s Menudo registered a moderate impact in the United States through the 1984 album Reaching Out, which presented English-language adaptations of the group’s principal successes even though every founding member had already departed.

Menudo’s transient synthesizer-pop approach soon lost currency in America, yet the act retained supremacy across much of Central and South America while ousted alumnus Ricky Martin launched a prosperous solo trajectory. By the late 1990s more than thirty former participants existed, and the prevailing edition—operating as MDO and comprising Alexis Grullon, Abel Talamántez, Didier Hernández, Anthony Galindo, and Daniel Weider—featured neither native Puerto Ricans nor any member younger than sixteen. Late in 2007 the MTV reality series Making Menudo debuted, with fifteen contestants vying for places in a reconstituted band. That 2007 configuration restored the original name and became the first to operate under the revised age ceiling of twenty. Carlos Olivero, Chris Moy, Emmanuel Vélez Pagán, José Bordonada Collazo, and Monti Montañez formed the new Menudo, with an album scheduled for release in fall 2008.