Song will be included on forthcoming album
The family of Tejano pop star Selena Quintanilla has released her first posthumous single, nearly three decades after her tragic death. “Como Te Quiero Yo A Ti” was released via Warner Music Latina on Friday (July 29th) and will be featured on the forthcoming Moonchild Mixes, due August 26th.
“It truly feels like she went into the studio again and recorded it,” Selena’s sister, Suzette Quintanilla, tells ABC’s Good Morning America. “It’s pretty incredible.”
The single was written by Ricky Vela, who was an original member of the Selena y Los Dinos band. The song was produced by her brother and long time producer, AB Quintanilla, who says the track took more than a year to assemble.
“There were a lot of obstacles to overcome. Everything was recorded on vinyl,” AB shares of Selena’s original tracks heard on the song. “So we had to kind of fuse the old school ways with the new school ways. Clean Selena’s vocals, put them on timing. And then we also pitched her vocal down just a hair to make her sound a little bit more mature.”
Some fans have suggested the album is taking advantage of the singer’s legacy.
“As an artist and musicians and people that are in the public eye, you have to turn that off,” Suzette says of the criticism the family has received of the project. “We’re still going to do what we want with our music, with our sister, with our band. And I hope people understand that everything that we do, we do it with loving care and with beauty.”
“I can’t go anywhere, I’m serious — I could be going through a gas station or wherever, and I hear it on the intercom or a little girl wearing a t-shirt.” AB adds, “It’s a beautiful thing because just seeing that she’s remembered. What we’re doing is honoring her memory, her legacy. That’s what it’s about.”
Selena’s legacy and fandom continues to grow, even 27 years after she was murdered by Yolanda Saldívar, the head of her fan club, at the age of 23 in 1995. Her story was first told in the 1997 biopic, Selena, starring Jennifer Lopez. It grossed more than $35 million at the box office and has become the 13th highest-grossing musical biopic of all time.
In late 2020, her story was introduced to a new generation with Selena: The Series on Netflix. The show, which saw the Quintanilla family fully involved and serving as executive producers, tells the story of Selena’s rise to fame and the sacrifices she and her family made along the way. The 18 episode series was released in two parts, concluding in May 2021, with more than 25 million viewers watching within the first 30 days of release.
“She means something,” Suzette states. “She was not just an incredible artist, she was an incredible person. And what she means to us as Latinos, she means something. And I think all of that has transcended and carried her out through the years and she is not going away. The younger generation are discovering her, and searching her and wanting to know more about her, so that’s why we felt it was really important to breathe life into this old music, and have it created new for the new generation.”
