Meet the New Menudo by David Jenison

Menudo photo Courtesy Sony BMG

“We haven’t seen the past couple episodes because we’ve been busy,” says 18-year-old José “Monti” Montañez, one of 15 finalists who made the final cut on the MTV series Making Menudo. “Now that we have all the episodes on DVD we can finally catch up.”

During the 10-part series, the finalists competed in a “Menudo Boot Camp” overseen by artist manager Johnny Wright and music director David Coury, both of whom worked with Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC in years past. The five winners knew their fate many weeks ago, but the airing of Making Menudo’s series finale allowed Monti, Chris Moy, Emmanuel Vélez Pagán, José Bordonada Collazo and Carlos Olivero to come forward as Menudo at long last.

“I’ve been counting the days, but since the show is airing tonight, now I’m counting the hours,” 15-year-old Moy told a conference room full of staffers at Epic Records, many of whom didn’t know the final line-up until that day.

With their More Than Words EP about to hit Target stores, the group had also come to their new record label to do their first interviews. The five teens bubbled over with excitement, but they also realized they have big shoes to fill. The original Menudo, which replaced members once they turned 16, sold over 40 million albums and launched the careers of Ricky Martin and Robi Rosa. Marc Anthony even worked with the originals...