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Singer Selena’s family announced plans to release a new album this spring, commemorating 27 years since the 23-year-old Tejano icon Selena Quintanilla Perez was shot and killed by her former employee, Yolanda Saldivar — an event that inspired both an acclaimed biopic and a Netflix miniseries.
Selena’s father, Abraham Quintanilla, told Latin Groove News that the yet-unnamed project would be distributed through Warner Music and contain 13 ballads and cumbias, composed of ten unreleased songs and three new arrangements of old songs.
Selena’s brother, A.B. Quintanilla, also spoke to Tino Cochino Radio about the project.
“It’s a crazy concept album. I remixed all her vinyls and just, with this album, with an EDM world, with arpeggiators and with keyboards, I made her flow to cumbia. Normal songs that were not normally recorded in cumbia,” the producer said.
Quintanilla explained that they digitally altered her voice to make her sound older as several tracks were recorded when she was a teen.
“We were also able to de-tune her voice to make her sound older than what she was. So, she was 14 or 15, we were able to make her sound like she just stepped out of the booth at 23 years old.”
He added that “by de-tuning her voice a little bit, it actually made her sound deeper, like she sounded before she passed.”
Family patriarch Abraham says he is amazed at how “26 years later the public still remembers Selena. They haven’t let go of her. They’re waiting for a project like this to come out, and I know it will be well received by the public.”
He adds, “I said right after she passed away that I was going to try to keep her memory alive through her music, and we have done that.”
