The Puerto Rican boy band Menudo, which gave singer Ricky Martin his start, is coming back as part of an “American Idol”-style reality show.
Dozens of Latino teenagers showed up for auditions Saturday at a waterfront market in Miami, the Miami Herald reported. Judges included Johnny Wright, the music manager behind New Kids on the Block, ’NSync and the Backstreet Boys, and Backstreet Boy Howie Dorough.
Menudo was one of the most popular boy bands of the 1980s and ’90s, rotating in new talent every few years when the singers got old or their voices changed.
“We’re going to make it a little different than it was before,” Wright told the Herald. “The beat is going to be the beats of the street now — club, hip-hop and rock. It’s not going to be something that’s pigeonholed.”
Seven boys from auditions being held around the country will be picked to film the series “The Road to Menudo,” airing next month on MTV Tr3s, MTV’s bilingual Latin-American channel.