Menudo's Band Members Were Replaced By Younger Boys Once They Hit Puberty
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Boy bands were ~definitely~ a big thing long before the days of One Direction and BTS. While the Beatles reigned supreme in the 1960s (and let's face it, they still do), back in the 1970s and 80s, the boy band spotlight shone brightly on Menudo, another musical group of epic proportions.
The group, which has since disbanded, is the subject of a new HBO Max docu-series that just dropped on June 23 titled, Menudo: Forever Young. The four-part series delves into the group's history and also details some disturbing allegations of sexual abuse.
Specifically, the docu-series covers Menudo's rise, interviews some of its members, and also talks about some of the horrifying abuse allegations.
But before getting into all of that, let's get a refresher on Menudo. Here’s what you need to know:
What was Menudo?
Menudo started off as a Puerto Rican boy band that released its first album in 1977. The group was super successful in the 1980s and became the most popular Latin-American teen group at that time, according to Billboard. The group was created and managed by a man named Edgardo Diaz, who served as a defacto "father" for the members, the New York Post reported.
Unlike the boy bands everyone is accustomed to now, which have only a few star members, Menudo had more than 30 different male singers in its group over the decades it was active, per Variety. The boys were kicked out of the band around the time they turned 16 and hit puberty, and they would be replaced with new, younger members.
Who was in the band?
A lot of people, actually. And with so much turnover, it kinda makes sense!
Ricky Martin is probably the most famous member of Menudo, along with Ricky Meléndez, Johnny Lozada, René Farrait, and Miguel Cancel.
Does Menudo still exist?
Nope! Menudo, which spun off into MDO in 1997, released its last studio album in 2009, according to Billboard. But several of its members have launched their own solo careers over the years.
How is Ricky Martin involved?
Ricky Martin (you know, the "Livin' La Vida Loca" guy) was in the band from 1984 to 1989. And, like other members of Menudo, he was a great singer and dancer. Ricky is not interviewed in the doc.
Former member Sergio Blass says that Ricky was a golden child. “To be with Ricky was brutal because he had seniority over me,” he says in the doc, per the New York Post. “So if someone knocked on the door, I had to open it. If the phone rang, I had to pick it up. I was like his housewife.”
What allegations does the documentary bring to light?
The documentary uncovers the dark underside of this boy band's biz, and that includes allegations of child abuse and sexual assault. Former member Angelo Garcia says at one point that he was given alcohol and then sexually assaulted.
“All I remember was that I, like, passed out,” he says. “When I woke up, I was naked and I was bleeding, so I knew that I had been penetrated. I had, like, these burn marks on my face from the rug…I was very confused and I didn’t understand.”
Other Menudo members also state that they were sexually abused, bullied, and forced to work under grueling conditions. Apparently, there wasn't a ton of adult supervision, and the boys were exposed to drugs like cocaine, the New York Post reported.
Where is Edgardo Díaz now?
Díaz has denied the abuse allegations, per the New York Post, and is no longer connected to Menudo.
“I am not going to spend the rest of my life defending myself and responding to allegations,” he told Primera Hora in 2014. “I live in peace.”
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