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GROOVE TO THE LATIN BEAT
(21th June 2001)
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No infant to the pop music scene, MDO is actually the evolution of Menudo- best known as the band that Ricky Martin was once a member of before he blasted into mega stardom as a solo artiste. Sine the original band started out in 1977 (the group has changed its members as often as the others change underwear), MDO (sounds like Menudo, but yet different… geddit?) has enjoyed a wildly sucessful career in Latin America and the United States.
In these parts, however, songs sung in Spanish have never been the rage, so the group and its music never really crossed over to Asia. But all that will change. With their first ever English album Little Piece Of Heaven released in Singapore recently, we will soon get the taste of the Latin- influenced pop sound that’s taken Latin America by storm.
In a market already saturated by a flood of- we’ll say it- factory- cloned boybands, what sets them apart from the other groups like Westlife and NSYNC? ‘Definitely the music,’ asserts Alexis Grullon. ‘It’s a fusion of sounds- we have a number of different sounds like Brazilian beats, and percussion from Latin America. It has a blend of our cultures, which is everywhere around Latin America. We don’t, in any way (look at the other boy bands), and try to compare or copy them. The most important thing for us is to feel comfortable and authentic with what we’re doing musically.’
Adds Didier Hernandez: ‘Another difference is that we are all really involved in all our projects. A lot of our music comes from our feelings, and things that we’ve lived through, and that’s why we’ve written so many songs for this and all our Spanish albums. We’re really more involved than what people really think. Apart from being singers and dancers, we’re also composers.’
Like all goos boybands, they, too, have got (almost) distinctive personalities. Alexis is the self- proclaimed leader of the gang, and one of the oldest at 24. With Didier, 22, and, and Abel Talamantez, 23, the three of them chalk up about 30 years of Menudo/MDO experience between them. Caleb Einar Aviles Reyes is the smouldering hunk, and Paulo Portillo (both 22) is the shy one with the sweetest smile. Except when he's onstage. That's when all five of them explode in a flurry of sexy, highly energetic dance routines, sending the (mostly female) audience at Orange into a screaming frenzy.
So, will MDO make it big on our isle? Well, the songs are catchy, though the Latin influence is only really evident in the energetic dance numbers. And these boys, typically, can rev it up with the best of the boybands, shuffling their feet, jerking their joints and shaking their bon bon in union. But if these don't move you, their passionate Latino looks could still send many hearts aflutter.
Give us a little piece of heaven, boys!
