#ThrowbackThursday: “Dreaming of You” by Selena

by Sean Smith

This week marks the somber 20th anniversary of the untimely death of Mexican-American singer Selena. Selena Quintanilla-Perez, who first made a name for herself singing spanish records in southern Texas, was finishing up recording a crossover English album when she was shot and killed on March 31, 1995.

The 23-year-old Selena was murdered by Yolanda Saldivar, who was the president of Selena’s fan club and later became a direct employee of the singer’s, working for her upstart fashion business. Saldivar allegedly had been stealing money from both the fan club and the fashion business, and the shooting occurred when Selena went to confront and fire Saldivar as a result. Saldivar was convicted of the murder and is currently serving out a life sentence.

Selena rose to prominence in large part due to her spanish speaking music, What is interesting to note though is that the singer did not grow up speaking spanish. She was a third generation english speaking Mexican-American and had to learn the spanish language in order to record her spanish records. She released five spanish speaking studio albums to much success, earning herself the nickname the “Queen of Tejano music”. Selena also earned a prestigious Grammy Award in 1994 when her live album Selena Live! won for Best Mexican/American Album. But it wouldn’t be until after her death, with the release of her posthumous 1995 album Dreaming of You, that Selena would achieve popular success with the larger english speaking mainstream audience.

At the time of Selena’s murder she was working on recording her sixth studio album Dreaming of You. It was intended to be a crossover album that would include both english and spanish songs. Just four months after Selena’s death, the album was released and was met with commercial success. The album sold over 300,000 copies in its first week and debuted atop the Billboard 200 album chart. becoming the first solo artist to debut a posthumous album on top of the chart. The top performing single released off of Dreaming of You was a single sharing the same name. The song “Dreaming of You” was Selena’s highest charting mainstream song, not only from this album but of her entire career, reaching as high as the #22 spot on the Billboard Hot 100. “Dreaming of You” was very close to never being heard by fans, as it was recorded by Selena just a few weeks prior to her untimely murder.

So to honor the life and music of Selena Quintanilla-Perez, who was murdered 20 years ago this week, we take a moment to remember her 1995 posthumous single “Dreaming of You”. Enjoy!

Selena

“Dreaming Of You”

From Dreaming Of You

EMI Latin