A month later, her life was cut short at 23 years old. But her legacy has endured, and almost 27 years after her death, an album featuring new and old songs is scheduled to be released next month, Abraham Quintanilla, the late singer’s father, has announced.
The compilation will feature 13 songs pulled from the singer’s catalogue, he said in an interview with Latin Groove News’s José Rosario. Three of the tracks will use the same lyrics but switch musical genres.
“If it was a cumbia, it could [now] be a ballad, you know?” Quintanilla said.
The first song on the album, he said, is a never-before-released ballad Selena recorded when she was 13 — but it will sound like an older Selena because of the digitally modified voice work done by her brother A.B. Quintanilla, who is also the album’s producer.
Essentially, the music is old but with a modern twist. While the vocal tracks were taken from the singer’s existing repertoire, the songs will incorporate fresh sounds and new “beautiful arrangements” concocted by A.B., Selena’s father said.
“What’s unique about it is not only the music, completely new arrangements, but my son worked on Selena’s voice with the computers,” Abraham Quintanilla said. “And if you listen to it, she sounds on this record like she did right before she passed away.”
ABRAHAM QUINTANILLA, "A Father's Dream."ABRAHAM QUINTANILLA visits virtually ON THE RECORD WITH JOSE ROSARIO, A Latin Groove News Exclusive! He talks about a new SELENA Album with Warner Music, with tentative release next month, his book "A Father's Dream," new projects, and new insights. Entrevista exclusiva con Abraham Quintanilla, con nuevas revelaciones y nuevo disco con musica de la muy querida y recordada artista SELENA QUINTANILLA. (Full interview. Entrevista completa.)
Posted by Latin Groove News on Thursday, March 10, 2022
With her vibrant singing and vivacious dancing, Selena quickly rose to fame in the Southwest and in Latin America. By 1994, she became a mainstream pop figure, drawing comparisons to icons such as Madonna, after her Grammy win for the album “Live.”
Though Selena built her reputation on songs sung in Spanish, she had to learn to speak the language because English was her native tongue. She dreamed of capturing the American music scene with a crossover album in English — one titled “Dreaming of You,” that was finally released a few months after she died and went on to become the best-selling Latin album of all time.
On March 31, 1995, Selena was shot in the back by Yolanda Saldívar, the president of her fan club who later became her personal assistant. Prosecutors for the homicide case said the two had an argument at a Corpus Christi motel over Saldívar’s alleged embezzlement of fan club funds worth $30,000. Saldívar is serving a life sentence for the singer’s murder.
The day of Selena’s death was deemed the “Black Friday of the Tejano music industry,” The Washington Post reported. Adoring fans left white roses, her favorite flower, at her house and tied purple ribbons to trees, remembering her favorite color. Her loss tugged at heartstrings far and wide.
Growing up in a middle-class, Mexican American household, Selena provided a sense of empowerment to an underrepresented demographic. Like many second- and third-generation Hispanic Americans, she stumbled with Spanish — sometimes talking in Spanglish in her interviews. Her legion of adoring fans is a testament to how her story resonated with the Latino community.
Selena’s life and rise to fame were immortalized in a 1997 biopic starring Jennifer Lopez and more recently in a 2020 Netflix series. Her style — most notably the iconic purple jumpsuit she wore in 1995 — remains a source of inspiration and a frequent Halloween costume. She also inspired several best-selling MAC makeup collections.
But while her image has remained frozen in time, Selena’s grooving music has never stopped playing. Her songs — which include the hits “Amor Prohibido,” “Si Una Vez” and “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” — were streamed a total of 452.5 million times across 177 countries in 2021, according to Spotify. Last week, the 2002 posthumous compilation of her hit songs, “Ones,” dominated the U.S. iTunes charts in two categories: Latin pop and Música Mexicana.
Selena’s work was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2021 Grammys, something her father said attested to his mission to keep his daughter’s “star shining.”
“I said that right after she passed away, that I was going to try to keep her memory alive through her music — and I think we have done that,” Quintanilla told Latin Groove News. “Almost 26 years later, Selena is very present in today’s music world.”