Selena Quintanilla Perez Discussion
Nov 20, 2009 22:33:27 GMT -5
Post by Filthy Pop on Nov 20, 2009 22:33:27 GMT -5
Selena Quintanilla Perez;
April 16, 1971- March 31, 1995
April 16, 1971- March 31, 1995
This thread is to honor the late, great Selena
Chart Accomplishments:
- The first artist to ever land 4 #1's in a single year (1994) on the Hot Latin Tracks chart.
- Selena was named by Billboard Magazine as the Best Selling Latin Artist of the Decade (90's), selling approx 18,000,000 albums.
- Selena spent more weeks at number 1 on Billboard Top 50 Latin charts than any other artist. 'Amor Prohibido' was number 1 for 78 weeks, which beats Gloria Estefan's 58 weeks.
- Selena, was the first Latin artist to chart a Latin album (at least 50% Spanish) at #1 on the Billboard 200 Pop Charts, as well as being the first Hispanic artist to reach #1.
- Selena blocked herself out of the #1 spot with I Could Fall In Love which peaked at #2 on the Hot Latin Tracks chart, while Tu Solo Tu was #1, she was the first artist to hold the #1 and #2 spot on the chart.
- Selena is the only Latin and FEMALE artist ever to place 5 consecutive albums is Billboard 200 top Selling albums in the U.S. and UK. This has only been accomplished by Elvis, The Beatles, and Garth Brooks.
Facts:
- People magazine sold out numerous publications of Selena's first People magazine cover, spawning the creation of People En Espanol.
- Selena was born in Lake Jackson, Texas in 1971 and didn't learn Spanish fluently until 1990.
- Selena had only recorded 4 tracks for her post-humous English debut, Dreaming of You those tracks are Captive Heart, I'm Getting Used To You, I Could Fall In Love, and Dreaming of You.
- I Could Fall In Love was ineligible to appear on the Hot 100, as there was no physical single released.
Selena and Bonnie Raitt, Grammys 1995
Comments About Selena:
I’m from the same hometown, Corpus Christi. I didn’t know her but every month we would go see her play. She was such a local heroine. She would be the J.Lo of today had she lived. She was doing the clothing line and the beauty boutiques and the singing and the acting way before anybody else. She would have been bigger than life. She was truly talented.
-Eva Longoria
I would love to pay tribute to Selena. I’d met her before that tragedy and she was on the brink of crossing over and doing amazing things. She really had the talent, she had everything. I was very, very sad when that happened.
-Gloria Estefan
I'm glad that I got to know you as a person, and it makes me happy that you were able to leave behind something positive for people. It's great that you were able to give so much happiness to so many through your music, and it makes me happy that I was able to have been some part of that. Also, through your family's story, you were able to show people that hopes and dream are reachable through hard work, perseverance and belief in oneself. I wish I could tell people how wonderful you were, but I don't know how to share all the many kindnesses that you showed me. Ultimately, through your untimely loss, I hope that people can look at their own lives and realize how important it is to cherish their loved ones every day.
-Ricky Vela, former band member, (quote from Selena Vive program)
I remember listening to her songs and thinking about how amazing she sounded. I could only imagine what her career would be like today.
-Beyonce (2008)
She's definitely one of a kind. She set an example for all Latinas out there, that they can do it, they can make it big. She's an amazing singer. Nobody can ever be like her. Nobody can top her.
-Paula DeAnda (2008)
I'm definitely a fan, not just of her music but of the person that she was in her everyday life.
-Jennifer Lopez
Selena has been recognized by her fervent fans and admiring musical contemporaries as a riveting performer who was a genuinely humble and truly caring person once she stepped off stage...
Two awards events held in held earlier this year (1995) go far in illustrating why the tragic death of this Tejano superstar on March 31st, 1995, has generated such an ardent outpouring of sympathy and remembrance on both sides of the Mexico-US border.
EMI Latin president José Behar, who was on hand for both awards programs, vividly recalls the unfolding of circumstances at the shows.
"In February, I attended the Tejano Music Awards with Selena," says Behar. "During the ceremony, a trophy earmarked for Selena was mistakenly given to another artist. Upon learning of the error, Selena felt so badly for the would-be awardee that she broke out into tears and refused to go onstage to receive the trophy." Behar tried to console Selena and asked her to go receive the award, but she would not hear of it.
Several weeks later at the Grammy Awards on March 1st, 1995, the shoe was on the other foot as Selena was in line to win her second consecutive Grammy in the Mexican-American category. Alas, she did not snare the award, which sent Behar into an emotional tailspin.
"All of a sudden she started trying to cheer me up," recounts Behar, "saying 'Wait a minute! I'm the star and you're supposed to be cheering me up!' Then we both had a laugh."
Both awards ceremonies underscore Selena's keen ability to valuate any situation by its true virtue. Regardless of circumstances, Selena's perspective was singularly clear and well-grounded in religious convictions that emphasized a humble approach to life spiced with a little humor.
Indeed, hearty laughs and good times were bountiful during Selena's slow, but steady, climb to the top of the Tejano world.
"It was like we would go on vacation every weekend," remembers Abraham Quintanilla Jr., Selena's father and manager. "Every town we played, we were meeting new people, new friends. So eventually everywhere we would play there would be a group of people to greet us."
Selena's long odyssey to super stardom began 18 years ago in Lake Jackson, Tx., a blue collar oil town south of Houston where Quintanilla began rehearsing a timid, but strong-voiced, Selena - then 6 years old - her older brother Abraham III (nicknamed A.B.) on bass and older sister Suzette on drums.
Called Selena y Los Dinos, the group started playing at a restaurant owned by Quintanilla, who had to shutter his eatery in 1981 when the Texas oil industry collapsed. That same year, the Quintanilla family moved to Corpus Christi, which would serve as a touring base for the fledging band now forced to take to the road to put food on the table.
Overcoming her innate shyness, Selena blossomed into a kinetic stage personality as she began incorporating urban dance moves and r&b-influenced vocals into a show whose musical performance featured polka-rooted rancheras offset by an occasional pop/funk cover. "Along the way," says Behar, "Selena also overcame the perception that female performers could not survive in the male-dominated Tejano arena."
What's more, Selena emerged as an inspirational idol for many female fans of Tejanos starved for a role model.
"You'd go to her concerts," remarked Quintanilla, "and they would be filled with little girls, middle-aged women - even viejitas, the little grandmothers."
Quintanilla recollects Selena saying she had two main goals: To crossover into the Anglo market and to open her own line of clothing boutiques. With the group's signing to EMI Latin, Selena hoped to achieve her first objective.
So did Behar.
"I signed her to EMI Latin for the crossover market," says Behar. "I had no idea she was going to become as big as she became in the Latin market."
Selena eventually would get her crossover stardom through the efforts of Behar and Nancy Brennan, Vice President A & R, EMI Records. But Selena y Los Dinos were beginning to hit in the Latino market via the band's 1991 album Ven Conmigo, which reached the top of Billboard's regional Mexican chart. The next year Selena was now being billed as a solo act releasing her first album, Entre A Mi Mundo. In a bid to break the album in the important Mexican market, Quintanilla coordinated with EMI Mexico a press conference for Selena in Monterrey.
"We were terrified because Selena didn't know Spanish that well," states Quintanilla. "When we came in, there were 30 - 35 reporters and Selena came in there and hugged each one of them. It took about 20 or 30 minutes. By the time she got through tough, she had them in the palm of her hand.
"They then asked Selena questions in the conference and her answers were completely out from left field. But they laughed and joked with her. The next day in the newspaper they wrote that she was 'una arista del pueblo' or an artist of the people."
While she was wowing the Mexican press, Behar was taking Selena into uncharted pop territory with the duet ballad "Buenos Amigos," recorded with El Salvador's talented singer/songwriter Alvaro Torres. The emotive ballad would shoot to No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks - the first of six chart toppers for Selena. Entre A Mi Mundo ended up scaling Billboard's regional Mexican chart.
By 1993, Selena was a bonafide Tejano superstar who was about to enjoy a breakthrough year. Selena continued to develop her profile in the Latino pop market with "Dondequiera Que Estés," her chugging, pop/dance duet hit with the New York vocal quintet the Barrio Boyzz that became her second No. 1 smash.
Selena released another album, Live!, which became her third straight album to reach the top of Billboard's regional Mexican chart. The album not only yielded a Top-Five single ("No Debes Jugar"), but also garnered Selena her first Grammy. And late in 1993, Behar helped Selena secure a record deal with EMI Records that promised to introduce her to a much wider audience.
With the release of Amor Prohibido in 1994, Selena revealed a broad interest in many types of music, ranging from ranchera ballads to hip-hop. Proof of her soaring popularity came when Amor Prohibido scaled the Billboard Latin 50, establishing the album as the biggest seller in the U.S.
Selena was getting involved in other creative projects, as well. She finally realized her second career goal upon opening a clothing boutique in Corpus Christi. She obtained a small part as a mariachi singer in the film "Don Juan de Marco," which starred Marlon Brando.
Selena also recorded "God's Child (Baila Conmigo)," a stirring English/Spanish duet with David Byrne that is included on her tantalizing new album Dreaming of You.
Assembled jointly by EMI Latin and EMI Records, Dreaming of You contains several of Selena's Latino classics, two previously unreleased Spanish-language, two new English/Spanish duets, and five English-language songs originally slated to be featured on her English-language debut.
The album's five English-language tracks boast the participation of a highly esteemed cast of producers (Keith Thomas, Rhett Lawrence, Guy Roche, Full Force) and songwriters (Diane Warren, Keith Thomas, Desmond Child, Franne Golde, Tom Snow) who were helping to mold Selena's sound toward a pop/r&b direction as alluring as Selena's sinewy voice.
Though always an emotive singer, Selena was scarcely a one dimensional song stylist. She displayed an instinctive ability to convey passion and sentiment in a variety of ways. The first half of Dreaming of You, for instance, spotlights Selena wrapping her creamy, seductive mezzo around slow-grooved love confessionals as "I Could Fall In Love," "Missing My Baby," and the title track.
Donning a more gritty vocal cloak during her pleading take of the smoothly rocking "Captive Heart," Selena reveals a tender toughness at once vulnerable and valiant.
"Wherever You Are," a bilingual remake of the aforementioned Selena/Barrio Boyzz smash "Dondequiera Que Estés" matches Selena's original sassy, Spanish-language vocals with the Barrio Boyzz's textured, English-language rendition.
As a Spanish-language vocalist during the second half of Dreaming of You, Selena again displays an uncanny penchant for applying just the right emotional touch to a vocal situation.
Digging deep into her well of emotion, Selena is at her heartbroken best during two tear-stained mariachi chestnuts, "El Toro Relajo" and "Tú Sólo Tú." Amazingly, Selena quickly reverses field to reveal a playful cooing growl on the dancehall thumper "Techno Cumbia," after which she flexes husky vocal muscle during a reggae-enhanced cover of another Latino chart topper, "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom."
Selena was slain by an ex-employee before she was able to realize her long-cherished ambition of becoming a crossover star. Still, Dreaming of You offers a complete chronicle of Selena's past, as well as a glimpse of where her musical future was heading.
Selena's final performance on February 26th, 1995, drew a crowd of more than 61,000 to the Astrodome in Houston. Her status as a top concert attraction was indisputable. Yet Selena insisted to her father that she continue to perform at smaller venues.
"I remember her saying, 'Look, these are the people that made us,' says Quintanilla. "I don't want to turn my back on them."
And for that, Selena's adoring fans will be eternally grateful and appreciative.
Two awards events held in held earlier this year (1995) go far in illustrating why the tragic death of this Tejano superstar on March 31st, 1995, has generated such an ardent outpouring of sympathy and remembrance on both sides of the Mexico-US border.
EMI Latin president José Behar, who was on hand for both awards programs, vividly recalls the unfolding of circumstances at the shows.
"In February, I attended the Tejano Music Awards with Selena," says Behar. "During the ceremony, a trophy earmarked for Selena was mistakenly given to another artist. Upon learning of the error, Selena felt so badly for the would-be awardee that she broke out into tears and refused to go onstage to receive the trophy." Behar tried to console Selena and asked her to go receive the award, but she would not hear of it.
Several weeks later at the Grammy Awards on March 1st, 1995, the shoe was on the other foot as Selena was in line to win her second consecutive Grammy in the Mexican-American category. Alas, she did not snare the award, which sent Behar into an emotional tailspin.
"All of a sudden she started trying to cheer me up," recounts Behar, "saying 'Wait a minute! I'm the star and you're supposed to be cheering me up!' Then we both had a laugh."
Both awards ceremonies underscore Selena's keen ability to valuate any situation by its true virtue. Regardless of circumstances, Selena's perspective was singularly clear and well-grounded in religious convictions that emphasized a humble approach to life spiced with a little humor.
Indeed, hearty laughs and good times were bountiful during Selena's slow, but steady, climb to the top of the Tejano world.
"It was like we would go on vacation every weekend," remembers Abraham Quintanilla Jr., Selena's father and manager. "Every town we played, we were meeting new people, new friends. So eventually everywhere we would play there would be a group of people to greet us."
Selena's long odyssey to super stardom began 18 years ago in Lake Jackson, Tx., a blue collar oil town south of Houston where Quintanilla began rehearsing a timid, but strong-voiced, Selena - then 6 years old - her older brother Abraham III (nicknamed A.B.) on bass and older sister Suzette on drums.
Called Selena y Los Dinos, the group started playing at a restaurant owned by Quintanilla, who had to shutter his eatery in 1981 when the Texas oil industry collapsed. That same year, the Quintanilla family moved to Corpus Christi, which would serve as a touring base for the fledging band now forced to take to the road to put food on the table.
Overcoming her innate shyness, Selena blossomed into a kinetic stage personality as she began incorporating urban dance moves and r&b-influenced vocals into a show whose musical performance featured polka-rooted rancheras offset by an occasional pop/funk cover. "Along the way," says Behar, "Selena also overcame the perception that female performers could not survive in the male-dominated Tejano arena."
What's more, Selena emerged as an inspirational idol for many female fans of Tejanos starved for a role model.
"You'd go to her concerts," remarked Quintanilla, "and they would be filled with little girls, middle-aged women - even viejitas, the little grandmothers."
Quintanilla recollects Selena saying she had two main goals: To crossover into the Anglo market and to open her own line of clothing boutiques. With the group's signing to EMI Latin, Selena hoped to achieve her first objective.
So did Behar.
"I signed her to EMI Latin for the crossover market," says Behar. "I had no idea she was going to become as big as she became in the Latin market."
Selena eventually would get her crossover stardom through the efforts of Behar and Nancy Brennan, Vice President A & R, EMI Records. But Selena y Los Dinos were beginning to hit in the Latino market via the band's 1991 album Ven Conmigo, which reached the top of Billboard's regional Mexican chart. The next year Selena was now being billed as a solo act releasing her first album, Entre A Mi Mundo. In a bid to break the album in the important Mexican market, Quintanilla coordinated with EMI Mexico a press conference for Selena in Monterrey.
"We were terrified because Selena didn't know Spanish that well," states Quintanilla. "When we came in, there were 30 - 35 reporters and Selena came in there and hugged each one of them. It took about 20 or 30 minutes. By the time she got through tough, she had them in the palm of her hand.
"They then asked Selena questions in the conference and her answers were completely out from left field. But they laughed and joked with her. The next day in the newspaper they wrote that she was 'una arista del pueblo' or an artist of the people."
While she was wowing the Mexican press, Behar was taking Selena into uncharted pop territory with the duet ballad "Buenos Amigos," recorded with El Salvador's talented singer/songwriter Alvaro Torres. The emotive ballad would shoot to No. 1 on Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks - the first of six chart toppers for Selena. Entre A Mi Mundo ended up scaling Billboard's regional Mexican chart.
By 1993, Selena was a bonafide Tejano superstar who was about to enjoy a breakthrough year. Selena continued to develop her profile in the Latino pop market with "Dondequiera Que Estés," her chugging, pop/dance duet hit with the New York vocal quintet the Barrio Boyzz that became her second No. 1 smash.
Selena released another album, Live!, which became her third straight album to reach the top of Billboard's regional Mexican chart. The album not only yielded a Top-Five single ("No Debes Jugar"), but also garnered Selena her first Grammy. And late in 1993, Behar helped Selena secure a record deal with EMI Records that promised to introduce her to a much wider audience.
With the release of Amor Prohibido in 1994, Selena revealed a broad interest in many types of music, ranging from ranchera ballads to hip-hop. Proof of her soaring popularity came when Amor Prohibido scaled the Billboard Latin 50, establishing the album as the biggest seller in the U.S.
Selena was getting involved in other creative projects, as well. She finally realized her second career goal upon opening a clothing boutique in Corpus Christi. She obtained a small part as a mariachi singer in the film "Don Juan de Marco," which starred Marlon Brando.
Selena also recorded "God's Child (Baila Conmigo)," a stirring English/Spanish duet with David Byrne that is included on her tantalizing new album Dreaming of You.
Assembled jointly by EMI Latin and EMI Records, Dreaming of You contains several of Selena's Latino classics, two previously unreleased Spanish-language, two new English/Spanish duets, and five English-language songs originally slated to be featured on her English-language debut.
The album's five English-language tracks boast the participation of a highly esteemed cast of producers (Keith Thomas, Rhett Lawrence, Guy Roche, Full Force) and songwriters (Diane Warren, Keith Thomas, Desmond Child, Franne Golde, Tom Snow) who were helping to mold Selena's sound toward a pop/r&b direction as alluring as Selena's sinewy voice.
Though always an emotive singer, Selena was scarcely a one dimensional song stylist. She displayed an instinctive ability to convey passion and sentiment in a variety of ways. The first half of Dreaming of You, for instance, spotlights Selena wrapping her creamy, seductive mezzo around slow-grooved love confessionals as "I Could Fall In Love," "Missing My Baby," and the title track.
Donning a more gritty vocal cloak during her pleading take of the smoothly rocking "Captive Heart," Selena reveals a tender toughness at once vulnerable and valiant.
"Wherever You Are," a bilingual remake of the aforementioned Selena/Barrio Boyzz smash "Dondequiera Que Estés" matches Selena's original sassy, Spanish-language vocals with the Barrio Boyzz's textured, English-language rendition.
As a Spanish-language vocalist during the second half of Dreaming of You, Selena again displays an uncanny penchant for applying just the right emotional touch to a vocal situation.
Digging deep into her well of emotion, Selena is at her heartbroken best during two tear-stained mariachi chestnuts, "El Toro Relajo" and "Tú Sólo Tú." Amazingly, Selena quickly reverses field to reveal a playful cooing growl on the dancehall thumper "Techno Cumbia," after which she flexes husky vocal muscle during a reggae-enhanced cover of another Latino chart topper, "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom."
Selena was slain by an ex-employee before she was able to realize her long-cherished ambition of becoming a crossover star. Still, Dreaming of You offers a complete chronicle of Selena's past, as well as a glimpse of where her musical future was heading.
Selena's final performance on February 26th, 1995, drew a crowd of more than 61,000 to the Astrodome in Houston. Her status as a top concert attraction was indisputable. Yet Selena insisted to her father that she continue to perform at smaller venues.
"I remember her saying, 'Look, these are the people that made us,' says Quintanilla. "I don't want to turn my back on them."
And for that, Selena's adoring fans will be eternally grateful and appreciative.
-Dreaming of You CD, John Lannert
