Menudo band members 1986
What is menudo made of!
Ricky Martin: 1971—: Singer, Actor
In 1984, after three auditions, the 12-year old landed a spot in the Latin boy-band Menudo.
Filipino menudo history
The band's manager, Edgardo Diaz, said of Martin in Time, "He was small, not a big singer, and his voice was not so good then. But we thought he could learn a lot by being with the group." Martin toured with Menudo as a lead singer over the next five years, performing across the globe, singing in various languages, and learning much about the music industry.
He told Gloria Estefan in Interview magazine, "It was five years of discipline … That band definitely helped me keep my feet on the ground." It also made him a teenage millionaire.
Throughout his early teen years, Martin spent most of his time rehearsing, reportedly up to 16 hours a day, and recorded and toured nine months out of the year.
Although the band itself was very popular, some of Menudo's former members publicly complained about their experience. In a 1998 interview with Entertai