Who says an artist can’t release new music once they’ve passed? Some 27 years after she was killed outside a Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas, Tejano singer Selena will be releasing a brand new album of previously unreleased songs.
Speaking during a Facebook Live interview with Latin Groove News‘ Jose Rosario, Selena’s father, Abraham Quintanilla, revealed the new album will be released in April 2022 via Warner Music. Along with three previously-released songs with new arrangements, it will also feature never-before-heard tracks that have been digitally modified.
The yet-to-be-titled album was produced by Selena’s brother, A.B. Quintanilla III, and includes a mix of ballads and cumbias. One of the songs was recorded when Selena was just 13 years old and was modified to make her voice sound like it did prior to her death.
Speaking to Rosario, Abraham Quintanilla said, “What’s unique about it is that not only is the music completely new arrangements, but my son worked on Selena’s voice with the computers and if you listen to her, she sounds on this recording like she did right before she passed away.”
The queen of Tejano music was at the peak of her career when she was shot to death by her former fan club manager, Yolanda Saldívar, on March 31, 1995. She was the first Tejano musician to win a Grammy Award, and was in the midst of recording her first English-language album, which would have undoubtedly spread her star power.
In 2021, she was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 63rd Grammy Awards.
Saldívar is currently serving a life sentence for first-degree murder at a maximum-security prison in Gatesville, Texas, with the possibility of parole in 2025. She maintains her claim that she shot 23-year-old Selena accidentally.
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The new album is currently with Warner Music, which is in the process of mastering it.