Menudo

Edgardo Díaz's invention

Menudo was born in Puerto Rico in 1977, out of the head of producer Edgardo Díaz. The original lineup brought together the brothers Fernando and Nefty Sallaberry with three cousins of Díaz —the brothers Carlos, Óscar and Ricky Meléndez— and released its first album that same year, “Los Fantasmas”. The idea, however, was more ambitious than a group: it was a system.

«When a member's voice broke, he left the group. Menudo did not grow old: it renewed itself.»

The golden rule: nobody stays

Menudo's trademark was an implacable rule: when a member's voice broke, he grew facial hair or grew too tall —usually around the age of 16— he was replaced by a younger boy. That way the group stayed permanently adolescent while its members came and went: more than fifty boys passed through its ranks over the course of its history.

That mechanism turned Menudo into something closer to a franchise than to a band: a product of perpetual renewal, with an audience and a cast that took turns at the same pace. Without setting out to, it was the mold of the modern boy band that would triumph decades later.

Menudomanía

In the early 80s, “Menudomanía” was a continental phenomenon. Its danceable singles —“Súbete a Mi Moto” (1981), “Claridad”, the album “Quiero Ser”— played all over Latin America, and the group filled stadiums from Mexico to Argentina. In 1983 it strung together, according to the chronicles of the time, four consecutive sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The phenomenon did not stop at language: Menudo recorded in Portuguese to conquer Brazil, in English to cross into the Anglo market —with RCA— and took its show as far as the Philippines and Japan. “Hold Me” (1985), with Robi Rosa on lead vocals, was its only song to enter the US Billboard Hot 100. There were also films, advertising campaigns and a teenage devotion counted in the millions.

From Menudo to the world: Ricky Martin and Draco

The rotation had an unexpected effect: it turned the group into a school for stars. In 1984, at about twelve years old, a boy named Enrique Martín Morales —Ricky Martin— joined, and would stay until 1989 before exploding as one of the biggest superstars in world pop. Around those same years came Robi “Draco” Rosa, who would become a cult artist and producer and would later co-write Ricky Martin's biggest hits.

Menudo and the dance floors

For half of Latin America, Menudo was the first music that belonged to adolescence: pop in Spanish, choreography and choruses made to be sung along. In the full golden age of the minitecas, its danceable songs were natural material for teen parties, matinees and floors run by discjockeys all over the region. Alongside freestyle, hi-NRG and the pop of the moment, Menudo was part of the repertoire a generation learned to dance to.

A shadow in the story

Menudo's story also has a dark chapter that came to light decades later. The documentary “Menudo: Forever Young” (HBO Max, 2022) gathered the testimony of several former members who reported mistreatment, exhausting schedules and a lack of supervision; one of them, Roy Rosselló, who came forward publicly, accused Edgardo Díaz's management of sexual abuse. In 2023, the Los Angeles police opened an investigation into an alleged assault that took place in the 80s.

These are accusations and an open investigation —Díaz has not been convicted— that today form part, inevitably, of the conversation about the group. We record them as what they are: public allegations and a proceeding under way, not facts proven in court.

The legacy

Menudo faded out in the 90s after a thousand mutations, but its mark stayed. It was the first great teen pop phenomenon made in Spanish and exported to the world, the laboratory Ricky Martin came out of and the forerunner of a model —the teen group as a franchise— that the industry would repeat without rest. For those who were teenagers in the 80s, it is still the soundtrack of a first youth that was danced out on the floor.