Nearly three decades ago, Selena Quintanilla’s life was tragically ended just as her success in the American mainstream was beginning to ignite.
Now, 27 years later, the Quintanilla family and Warner Music Latina will be releasing a new album from the Tejano singer. The estate has unveiled a remixed regional version of “Como Te Quiero Yo A Ti” — the first single from Selena’s forthcoming 13-track album, “Moonchild Mixes,” which will release on Aug. 26.
“Como Te Quiero Yo A Ti” has been re-released once before, making this the third version of the song which was originally recorded in 1987. The single was written by Ricky Vela, who was an original member of Selena y Los Dinos and produced by Selena’s brother, A.B. Quintanilla.
Of the new album, A.B. told rame>" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ABC News that “Everything was recorded on vinyl. 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.”
According to the family, a majority of the album’s songs were recorded when Selena was between 13 and 16 years old. In a process that took over a year to complete, A.B. says he digitally altered the music to portray the vocals and overall sound as accurately as possible. The new album will include 10 never-before-heard songs and three that are new variations of previously released tracks.
“It truly feels like she went into the studio again and recorded it,” Selena’s sister, Suzette Quintanilla, said in the ABC News interview.“It’s pretty incredible.”
The siblings also discussed the fuel for the new posthumous album, citing the fact that they wanted “to breathe new life into this old music and have it created new for the newer generation.”
“The younger generation are discovering her and they’re searching her and they want to know more about her,” said Suzette of her sister.
Quintanilla was among the top-selling artists of the 1990s before she was shot and killed on March 31, 1995. She was 23 years old.
In response to a question about posthumous albums being exploitative, A.B. and Suzette said they believe their sister would’ve loved the new album. “What we’re doing is honoring her memory, her legacy. That’s what it’s about,” A.B. said.
“As an artist and musicians and people that are in the public eye, you have to turn that off. We’re still going to do what we want with our music, with our sister, with our band,” added Suzette. “And I hope people understand that everything that we do, we do it with loving care and with beauty.”
On July 25, the estate also released an official music video for her 1995 ranchera single “Tú, Sólo Tú,” as a part of the new album rollout. That video features rare photos and video footage of the singer. When it was released in 1995, the song debuted at number three on the Billboard Hot Latin Tracks and climbed to number one in the following week where it stood for ten weeks.
