Selena's time in Nashville cut short by tragic death
- The Queen of Tejano music recorded "I Could Fall in Love" in Franklin.
- Music producer Keith Thomas says Selena was going to be an icon. "She checked all the boxes."
- Selena, Wynonna Judd were in same studio the week before she was killed.
At the height of her Tejano music career, Selena Quintanilla-Perez was poised to cross over and go mainstream.
Though Selena was already an established star throughout Latin America, with songs like "Como La Flor," "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom" and "Amor Prohibido," she was largely unknown to non-Spanish speakers. She was determined to change that.
In late March 1995, Selena arrived at the Bennett House in Franklin ready to sing in English. She had come to Tennessee to work with songwriter and producer Keith Thomas, whose resume included smash hits like Amy Grant's "Baby, Baby" and Vanessa Williams' "Save the Best for Last."
During their time together, the two sang, laughed and repeatedly listened to rough cuts of the song Selena was recording: Thomas' "I Could Fall in Love." The duo knew they had a hit on their hands.
A week later, Selena was dead.
On March 31, Yolanda Saldivar, the former president of Selena’s fan club, shot her in the back at a hotel in Texas, ending the life of a promising young artist with limitless potential.
“She was going to be an icon,” Thomas said. “When you’ve been in the business as long as I have, you understand the components an artist has to have to sustain themselves in this business. She checked all the boxes. "
MAC honors late singer Selena with new line
Selena, just 23 when she recorded with Thomas, was already known as the Queen of Tejano Music. She got her start as a child in Texas, singing with the family band. As a solo artist, she released four studio albums, won a Grammy for Best Mexican/American Album and was poised to make the crossover to the mainstream American pop market by recording her first English-language album. One of the songs on that record was going to be Thomas' dreamy ballad "I Could Fall in Love."
Despite her success, Thomas was unaware of her music. That all changed when he was sent a videocassette of one of her performances. "I watched the video, heard her sing and told my manager, 'I've got to do this,'" he remembered.
Not long afterward, Selena arrived on the doorstep of the Bennett House, where Wynonna Judd was also recording that week. She was clutching new clothes from Wal-Mart (the airline had lost her luggage) and a bag of groceries so that she could do her own cooking during her stay in Tennessee. Wynonna saw Selena cooking one day and misidentified the young singer as the chef. Selena's brother A.B. Quintanilla told Buzzfeed last year that Selena quickly corrected the country music singer, but still made her dinner. Both Wynonna and he laughed about the incident years later at an awards ceremony.
"Selena was just being the person that she is and said 'of course I would.'" Thomas said.
Thomas immediately felt a connection to this young woman with the bright grin and stunning voice. "Selena had this glow about her. The smile was real, it was genuine, and I felt like I had known her forever. There were no boundaries, no pretense."
After they finished the song, Selena went back to Texas with a promise to return in two weeks. Thomas was putting the finishing touches on "I Could Fall in Love" when he learned that she had been murdered. "That was the toughest part, having to finish it knowing that she was not with us anymore," he said while sitting in his studio, not far from a photo of himself and Selena, both wearing matching baseball caps and big smiles.
"We’re now missing a real human being that was compassionate, talented and beautiful on the inside and out. I think she would have been a major contributor to the music industry on a lot of different levels."
In July 1995, Selena’s album “Dreaming of You” was posthumously released. It debuted atop the Billboard 200. “I Could Fall in Love,” the record’s opening song, became a massive hit; it was frequently played on pop radio and could be heard at quinceañeras and senior proms across the continent. Her songs have been covered by everyone from pop star Selena Gomez (who was named after Quintanilla) to punk band Girl in a Coma, and her 1997 biopic launched Jennifer Lopez's career. Selena's success also helped pave the way for the "Latin Explosion" in mainstream American pop music during the mid- to late 1990s and into the early 2000s, where Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, Marc Anthony and Shakira all found crossover success.
Had she lived, there's no telling what she could have achieved, both as a singer and a businessperson.
This weekend, MAC cosmetics is launching a Selena-inspired collection. The project was fan-driven: A petition to convince MAC of this idea's merit had more than 37,000 signatures by the time the cosmetics company got on board. At the time of her death, Selena had already launched Selena Etc., two boutiques that featured beauty salons as well as clothing that the singer had designed. A cosmetics line would have been a natural next step for her.
“This line is solely based on Selena’s on- and off-stage look. They matched and created colors that Selena had in her makeup case. This line is her,” Selena's sister, Suzette Quintanilla Arriaga, told USA TODAY earlier this month. "I wish with all that I have that she was here to see this. She would have been over the moon.”
Said Thomas, "I think, and I know a lot of people feel this way, that if she'd lived, she would have been a complete superstar. I miss her. I think back on that time and what a tragedy (it is) that her life was cut so short."