Her crossover album ultimately helped open doors for others. It went on to win Album of the Year at the 1996 Tejano Music Awards and Female Pop Album of the Year at the 2nd annual Billboard Latin Music Awards.įollowing in Gloria Estefan’s footsteps, Selena understood the importance of bilingual music and having her cultural experience represented in her sound. The album sold 175,000 copies on its first day of release in the U.S., a then-record for a female vocalist. “She was only able to record just some of her songs off of her Dreaming of You album. “Unfortunately, Selena wasn’t able to fulfill her dream completely,” Suzette said. You listen to different genres of music, and I think when people look and listen to Selena, they can identify with her.” doesn’t mean you only listen to English music. “Just because you live in Mexico doesn’t mean you don’t listen to English music,” she added. As we grew up, it was one of Selena’s dreams and to do a crossover album.”
We grew up on English music, and we learned music through my father and that’s how we made a living. “It was something that, you have to understand, our ancestors and great-grandparents are from Mexico, so we’re third and fourth generation. Quintanilla III, was part of Los Dinos, the musical group that Selena fronted since 1980. “It was a long time coming,” explained Suzette, who along with her older brother, A.B. “Her legacy is alive through her fans and everyone who continues to listen to her.”īefore her untimely death, Selena had been working on a crossover album, Dreaming of You, which was released posthumously on Jby EMI Latin and EMI Records. “When Selena passed away it was just a total surprise when we realized how much our music had touched people, how much Selena had inspired others,” Suzette told ET exclusively in 2017.
This fall Netflix will release Selena: The Series with Christian Serratos playing the lead role.ĮT spoke with Selena’s sister, Suzette Quintanilla-Arriaga, a few years ago, who opened up about her little sister’s legacy and how her family continues to carry out Selena’s wildest dreams, one project at a time. Her cultural resonance can, in part, be attributed to her growing fan base and numerous pop-cultural markers - including the 1997 movie, Selena, as well as tribute concerts, a wax figure, a special edition makeup line, statues and a festival in her hometown of Corpus Christi, Texas - that continue to place the late singer center stage. But her fame has only grown since her death: Thanks to a hit 1997 biopic starring Jennifer Lopez, her life story has crossed over into the American mainstream.While the passing of time can be a detrimental factor for any celebrity, in Selena’s case, it’s only helped broaden her legacy. She carved a space for herself in a traditionally macho genre, designed her own costumes, began a clothing line, and crafted a body of work that remains beloved and in rotation on Latin-pop stations to this day, including the innocent and lighthearted “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” and the unforgettable “Como la Flor.” Selena’s life was cut tragically short at age 23, when her friend (and founder of her fan club) Yolanda Saldívar shot her.
Quintanilla that injected Tejano with other influences, including reggae, pop, and techno-a tacit acknowledgement of the family’s bicultural upbringing that many Latino and Hispanic people could relate to. She toured relentlessly, releasing a string of albums produced by her brother A. For a young artist, such early success could spell disaster, but Selena was fiercely original and driven-and playful-and she had a vision. (Though raised speaking English, she learned to sing in Spanish and eventually became fluent.) She won the Tejano Music Award for Female Entertainer of the Year at age 15 and landed a deal with Capitol Records soon after.
The vocalist was born in Lake Jackson, TX, in 1971, and she started singing at around age 10 in the family band, Los Dinos, at her family’s restaurant. It’s almost impossible to overstate Selena Quintanilla’s significance, both as an artist-she’s Tejano’s most successful recording artist-and as an icon for young women.