Abel Talamantez

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Abel Talamantez Mendoza (born October 16, 1978 in Pecos, Texas), is a Mexican-American who is a singer in the well known cumbia music group, the Kumbia Kings.

[edit] Biography

Abel Talamantez, who grew up playing basketball with his brother and three sisters in Pecos, became a member of the famous Puerto Rican music group, Menudo, in 1992, after several group members had left the group in the middle of a sexual scandal that had threatened to break up the band. Edgardo Diaz held auditions and Talamantez, together with Alexis Grullon, among others, were chosen as the new members of Menudo. At Menudo, Talamantez got to share the stage with the only member of the group who stayed through the scandal, Adrian Olivares, who also was the first non-Puerto Rican member of Menudo. For a short period, Talamantez moved to Puerto Rico with the rest of the band.

Although the often called golden era of Menudo (basically from 1980 to 1985) had already passed by, the group still had fame across Latin America and among Hispanic commuunities in the United States, and Talamantez became a teen idol among Hispanic girls during his first few years with menudo.

In 1996, and now with Didier Hernandez also among Menudo's members, the group changed its name to MDO. Talamantez kept being a member of the group, which, by then, approached a more mature audience, allowing it's members to keep being part of the group after the age of sixteen and to get married, among other things. Along with the rest of MDO, Talamantez moved to Miami, Florida.

During the 2000s, MDO kept on touring across Latin Americas, and, particularly, in the Southwestern states of the United States. Talamantez got married, but he kept his duties as a member of the group.

Late during 2002, recently after Caleb Aviles had joined the group, Talamantez and Diaz engaged in some managerial disputes (which in no way were related to Aviles' joining MDO), and, towards the end of his tenure as a Menudo-MDO, Talamantez was no longer touring with the group, staying with his wife in Miami instead. By 2003, when MDO periodiacally stopped performing before returning in 2005 as Tick Tock, Talamantez officially ended his relationship with the organization.

Soon after, he was contacted by A.B. Quintanilla, brother of slain tejano music star Selena and founding leader of The Kumbia Kings. Talamantez quickly accepted Quintanilla's offer to become a member of the famed band. Perhaps ironically, one of the major hits the band has had since Talamantez became a member was a remake of a 1984 Menudo hit, Sabes a Chocolate (Taste Like Chocolate).

Talamantez continues, as of 2005, touring with The Kumbia Kings.