Selena: Rise to the Astrodome

It's nineteen eighty nine, the year Taylor was born. Just kidding, it's nineteen eighty nine and it is eighteen years old. Selena has two major record labels in a bidding war.

So many offers on the table, a bitch got to eat on the couch.

First, she was approached by the head of EMI Latin, the just launch Latin music division of major British record label EMI.

It was Selena's second time at the Tejano Music Awards, and she cleaned house. She dazzled the crowd, and she and the Dinos took home.

Six honors, convinced that they had found the next Gloria Stefan Music executive Jose Bahar found Selena backstage signing autographs and introduced himself as the head of EMI Latin, and Selena replied, yeah right, but Bihar was the real deal, and he wasn't the only scout in the crowd.

The heads of Stony Music were in attendance too. They were just as impressed with Selena, and their eventual offer for her was twice as generous as emis for a.

Young musician who had been living on the road in a converted bus with her family. This was the.

Dream, But for any young artist, a decision like this can also be treacherous.

I also think a lot about what it must have been like for Abraham back then, right, Like he had been in the music industry, but let's be honest, his band did not have anywhere near the success that Selena and Losinos.

Were going to have.

Contracts had to be hard. Like Abraham wasn't a lawyer, he didn't have access to that. And I think about how many times I've signed a contract that was not in my best interest. How many times you hear about musicians like even Taylor Swift, right, yeah, you think about one of the biggest artists in the world that had all of those resources, that had two parents, that probably could have hired whoever, and she still feels like she got royally screwed in these contracts because it's hard, it's

I feel like they can make you until you think you're something, and then when you tried to go off on your own, that's where they have this contract because they own you, but you do need each other.

One of the first like TV things I did. I think I signed away the rights for them to use my image in perpetuity.

No, no, Stu.

Yeah. So if you ever see a hologram of me at a casino.

Gambling, you're like a casino girl. See and look, you're smart and you know all this shit now. But like they got you on your very first contract.

Back then, they were like, we will pay you an extra. Then I was like, where do I sign? Where do I sign?

We'll see, and that's where something like this happens.

Up until this point, Selena and her family had dealt with small regional labels across Texas. This was a new level of.

Business, and just as he had been throughout her whole career up until now, Selena's father, Abraham was the one in front of this decision.

Around Corpus Christi and San Antonio. Abraham Keythinia had already garnered a reputation for being iron willed and stubborn and for his hair trigger temper.

Behar had his own reputation, perhaps making him an Abraham a perfect match. Years later, Behar would say in an interview.

Selena's father to this day says he signed with me because I already had a reputation in the business for being a little bit aggressive, especially in that region of the country. Although he tortured me for like five or six months, making it like he didn't want to sign with me, and all that he still tells me to this day, he knew he would sign right away.

The day after the Tajano Music Awards, Abraham Caithania and jose bahar hammered out a deal over breakfast. Selena would be the first artist to sign to EMI Latin.

The reason was simple. Abraham believed Selena was a star, and EMI would let Selena attempt a crossover album.

But not without conditions.

I'm your Hoe, Liliana Oscaz.

And I'm Joseph Carrio And This is Becoming an Icon.

A weekly podcast where we give you the rundown on how today's most famous Latin v stars have shaped pop culture.

And given the world some extra tuble.

Sit back and get comfortable.

Because we are going in the only.

Way we know how, with when us, whenasriesas, and a lot of opinions as we relive their greatest achievements on our journey to find out what makes them so iconic. Let's talk about Selena's very first album cover. Joseph. One word to describe it?

Oh god, one word? Uh? Why I don't have any mark? Yeah? Question mark. It's just all so wrong, just everything about it, and it just makes me sad, you know, just looking at it. Do you don't want to buy that album?

It's such an odd presentation of who we know and love as Selina Quintania. It's such an odd presentation of anybody.

Period, any human alive. I would say, but how would you describe it? Like visually, what are you looking at?

It's very like Moroccan Arabian nights in the desert, Like if a camel popped up, I would not be surprised.

Yeah, and she's.

Wearing like a head wrap with big earrings and a big necklace and like a bralatt and the skirt that's maybe like bautique print. Let me just be very very honest. This is somebody at a label that has confused cultures and was just like thinking, oh, she's exotic, she's Mexican, and they're like, where have I been? That's exotic? I've been to Morocco and they just are basically conflating anything exotic. Yeah, they put into this buckets. The good news is it didn't make sense to Selena either.

They hated the makeup, they hated the hair, they hated the clothes, and Selena from the get was just not happy with this. And the label did end up calling this cover the worst they'd ever gotten, Like.

Literally the worst they'd ever gotten. It was the worst that has ever been produced on planet Earth.

It was also their fault. Our Girl had nothing to do with us.

Okay, that's no shade to the album itself. It was a top performing debut that week on Billboard's Regional Mexican Albums Chart at number seventeen, our girls very first time on the chart.

But the story of this cover tells you a lot about the high expectations around Selena at this point and all the competing pressures and conflicting visions creatively around her.

Apart from the lifelong pressure to support her family with her art, Selena dealt with the pressure from the label.

The parent label for Emi Latin saw the new division as a quote unquote gamble, so Bihar had to deliver and Emi had scoffed at Behar's claim that he had found the next Gloria Estephon, telling him he had only been in Texas for a week.

Before the recording of Selena's major label debut was finished, Bihar and his fellow execs Stephen Finfer, had requested permission for her to begin recording material for a crossover.

Album aka The Whole Reason Abraham chose Emi over Sony, but Emi insisted that Selena needed a bigger fan base in order for a crossover to be successful.

Behar alleges that Emi didn't believe a Mexican American woman had crossover potential, and.

So the strategy was to follow through on the parent label's expectation that Selena first dominate the Mexican and South American markets before attempting the English language cross.

So but think about that for a minute. Selena ylos Dino's spent their whole childhood playing in shows in Texas. Their dad raises them on the Tahano music of his youth. They're listening to American pop. It's like what Abraham said all over again. They have to be more Mexican than Mexicans and more American than the Americans. I think any Latin person in the US who's ever had imposter syndrome knows. This is literally the nightmare.

It's so true. It's exhausting to try to win at both. But as a Selena fan, I will say that she had the chops to do it right, like she had the raw talent to do it. But if we've learned anything through two seasons of becoming an icon, it's that a lot of these icons had like five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten albums before they had global success.

Selena's brother ab expressed that the band couldn't take a failure, that under performing would put them at the bottom of the totem pool for the label.

And I totally get that you only get one shot at this, but I think that's like scarcity mindset, and he needed to really believe in the talent that Selena and the band had, and I get it. As the lead producer for the album, I'm sure Abe felt tons of pressure right because Abraham had also stipulated that his son would produce the first full length album.

If the record underperformed, the label would find a producer of their own for the follow up, like do a good job, or we'll find someone who can.

As fate would have it, Aby did do a good job. The debut album featured plenty of the Tahano sounds Selena Ilosinos had cut their teeth on, like Quirostad, which dominated airways in Texas that year.

It also had some curveballs, like my love dance track That's a Little Madonna a Little Gloriac. There was also Sukiyaki, a Spanish cover of a Japanese pops from the sixties, not My.

Favorite's Gonna Lie, and the classic Besitos, which introduced Goumbia to Selena and the band's repertoire. The track was the first collaboration between AB and Pete Estubio, a songwriter AB would frequently collaborate on as time went.

On, Was it synth Ritz and Cumbia ritmon Besitos pointed the way for Selena and the band's creative future.

What I find so interesting about the association we have with Selena's style of music, which is the Hano music but also Gumbia music, is that in researching for this episode, in my head, I always thought that Cumbia belonged to Mexicans.

Wait it does, Wait it doesn't.

So Gumbia is actually Colombian. It's their music. It was brought to Mexico. I think, like in the nineteen forties, and we kind of adopted it and obviously like added our own style of instruments to it.

We borrowed it permanently.

All told, Selena was really happy with the album. She felt, in her words, that all the hard work paid off.

And it did, Hannah. The album would peak at number seven on Billboard's Regional Mexican Album chart, making Selena the Dehanna to watch.

And it opened the door to touring across the Southwest into Mexico and through the Midwest Washington and Florida.

We ain't in Texas anymore, Toto.

Selena's success was a decent indication that EMI's quote unquote gamble might just pay off.

Abe would remain the principal producer on the next album, nineteen nineties Ven Gonemule, and.

Perhaps embolden by the success of her major label debut, Selena would begin taking some risks.

Risks and looks and in love.

In nineteen ninety, Selena's second album, Then Gonnigle, gave us the all time classic Bye Lastacumbia.

Bye La Baye lah is Tacumbia. I just love that song.

Also, by the way, let's not forget gave us Selena in a mohawk, and here to tell us all about that look is a man sporting a mohawk himself at the moment, Joseph, it's true. Do you want tell us a little about it?

Yes. After the embarrassment of the last album cover, Selena decided to be bold. The night before they shot the new cover, Our girl had a punk rock makeover montage moment and hacked her hair off.

We're talking jon Jet, needle drop, sink full of hair dye.

That's the vibe. Selena showed up to the shoot the next day in a dyed black mohawk, and the label was livid. They're trying to present Selena as a good girl and she's over here looking red to smash a freaking guitar.

Although the Dinos were still very much part of the equation, Emi Latin was promoting Selena first and foremost.

And around this time Selena would start taking a bit more ownership of her personal life.

It's time to talk about Chris.

Selena's guitarist and eventual love interest, Chris Bettis would enter the picture during the recording of ven Gunmigo in nineteen eighty nine, Aby recruited him off his big reputation within the Tano music scene.

Lakintanias went to see him perform. Betez reciprocated, and after seeing Selena and the band's chops, he was sold.

He loved the Dino sound, and on top of that, he was excited to learn about musical arrangement from ab I get Ce brothers.

Beez introduced harder edge guitar work the Dinos sound, which would turn out to be a crucial ingredient.

But Abraham wasn't crazy about his harder edged rocker look and insisted that Betty's clean up to align with his family friendly vision fors.

Which makes Selena's jone jet moment all the more interesting. At nineteen, Selena was an adult, but Abraham was still abrahaming.

And despite Beta's musical contributions, Abraham by all accounts, had a skeptical eye on him from the jump.

Abraham was afraid Peez would sing the band, but Petez and ab formed a strong collaborative friendship, and the first routs of that friendship came the same year he started getting involved with the band.

Selena would appear in a Coca Cola commercial in Mexico, which b T dubs that's how you know you've made it over there?

Oh yeah, it's a quick spot. Selena sings a little jingle to camera and dances with a.

Partner in a red dress given to her by Mexican actress and singer Lucy Amendez.

Which also tells you a little bit about Selena's growing footprint be on the Texas border. Oh and the jingle itself, it was composed by Aby and Chris.

After Selena shot the commercial, ab treated the band to a vacation in a comple and that's where Selena and Chris's romance blossomed.

Chris did try to fight it at first, and not just because he was being professional, but because he had a girlfriend in San Antonio.

And the low it was arobi though on a few level, honey.

But Chris ultimately couldn't fight it, and neither could Selena. So they confess their feelings for one another at the most romantic spot in the San Antonio metropolitan area, where over personal pan pizzas. Pizza hut, No, y'all, I'm kidding. I don't know they had personal pant pizzas, But what else are you eating? At Pizza Hut. Maybe the salad bar I don't know, but whatever they were at pizza.

Hut, I was going to say, what was the oragor y'all, Selena and Chris were eighteen and twenty when they met. But it's such a teen romance. I mean a pizza hut.

Come on, we know our girl loves a pizza. She loves Pepperoni pizza. But right, imagine passing through to pick up your favorite pie and seeing them huddle together at a table over to Cox. You think, aw get cute and head back to the parking lot.

You wouldn't think for a second that that was an artist who was playing crowds up to sixty thousand people by that.

Point, well unless maybe you'd seen that coke. But point being, Selena's career was at an inflection point when Petez joined.

The record were selling, the fan base was growing, and the band was branching out.

Musically, and yet Abraham saw Chris as a threat. So, to Selena's dismay, she and Chris would keep their relationship a secret.

I can kind of see why Abraham feels like that, where this person coming in. If he influences his daughter, he can probably you know, she might side with him, and that's just a natural threat. I would say, like as a as a macho man. Right, we'll call it that.

Well, I think saying I think using the word macho here is kind of the perfect way to describe what's going on.

Right.

You have Abraham who is very much like household, head of musical group, head of everything in his head, and to me, it's like a control thing, right. I think he wanted to control his daughter. I think he wanted to control Selena the performer and exerting control over her by telling her who she could and couldn't date. It's just another way that he really wanted to kind of

That's what I was going to say. You know. Also, the thing is is that she's just also so young like and unfortunately he does see her as a meal ticket and you can't fuck with with my money.

That's kind of the vibe that I get after having read so much about the relationship. It was kind of like, I don't want to be poor, I don't want to be broke. My entire success, our entire livelihood as a family is riding on the success of this band. And you know, you throw in a curveball, and let's be honest. Chris did not have the best history, right. He had had some like big party on the road. He had

Okay, first of all, I know you know Susette, So tell her that I'm pissnoid with her that she narked on her sister. Well, Selena's mother was approving of the relationship. Abraham pulled Chris off the tour of us and told him it's over.

But Selena and Chris continued dating in secret. You can't stop love bus. Okay, and we can't confirm whether Selena still had the mohawk at this point, but off the energy is there.

Just imagine she does have the mohawk for this next part, because it's just better that way.

Okay, I'm there, I'm there.

One day, Abraham again stops the bus. He stomps over to where Selena and Chris are sitting and shouts again that it's over, but Selena screams.

Back at him, that's kind of big, Like maybe this is about a little more than a secret relationship, like that kind of big.

Meanwhile, Chris tries to mediate between the two until Abraham calls him, quote unquote a cancer to the family.

Damn Abraham. Well, with Chris now in the fray, Abraham threatens to disband Selena E Loosino's if the relationship continues, that is so much drama.

Like you need to do least guys saw him.

I know the young lovers stand down, and Abraham fires Chris from the group.

Abraham told Texas Monthly that he dropped the guitarist off at a Waterburger parking lot and told him to find his way home. Which that's harsh, but you could do words and Waterburger. I love me a number seven, so do I.

In the Texas Toast hits every time, so good A breakfast Burger probably wouldn't ease the hurt of losing your girlfriend and your job at the same time. But Chris, by his account, had been exhausted from dealing with all of Abraham's drama and moved back to San Antonio.

Selena, however, was devastated. The two would continue to try to see each other whenever she was in the area, in secret, of course, but this would.

Prove too hard for Selena, so one night she banged on the door of his hotel room in Corpus Christy and demanded he elope with her, And just.

Like that, Selena and Chris, at twenty and twenty two, were married, at the Nuess County Courthouse. Abraham initially took the news badly, but eventually accepted their marriage and allowed Chris back into the band.

Duh, Chris would say, in hindsight, I thought with great certainty that remembering those marriage vows would always be a sort of glue holding us. We had every intention of living happily ever after. Nobody could stop us from doing that now.

And these sure were Selena's crowning musical achievements were soon to follow, starting with her bona fide breakthrough album.

If the test was for Selena to prove that she had star power in Latin America, you could say she had already passed.

With flying colors, Baila Estakumiya became a hit single in Mexico, Her concerts were drawing crowds in the tens of thousands, and we already told you about the Kogas.

Selena Ilosino's continue to weave modern popin' dance tracks into their albums, planting the seeds for that long awaited crossover.

But we can't talk about crossovers without talking about the album that made Selena a bonafide.

Star, nineteen ninety two's Ententre Amimundo featuring Goma. But you have to like whisper it.

I know.

She builds bitch, she doesn't give it to you right away, she teases you.

Chrees.

Gomla would become Selena's signature track, solidifying her star status in Texas and Mexico.

The song tells a story of this woman and literally my life seeing her ex with a new flame. Though painful, she accepts the need to move on, comparing their past love to a wilted rose.

Ultimately, she's glad to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

Me on good day brunch.

On the flip side, there's Gegrillaz where she tells off a former lover, singing and I am translating here, what did you think that you were going to find a love greater than mine that would make you happier? Well, now you know it's not so easy.

Me on an even better day at brunch.

We have definitely both been both of these songs, maybe sometimes on the same day at the same brunch.

Truly, And that's the beauty of Selena on this album. Lyrically to Hano music usually told tales of deceitle women and male victim.

Hed Selena flipped that script on its head, using the genre to give voice to deeply felt female characters and their experiences. Entremi Mundo exemplifies just how far Selena had come as a vocalist, how far ab had come as a songwriter, and how in sync the whole band had become.

The track list incorporates power pop, R and B, disco, rock, and funk in the Tehano and Tejano cumbia sounds that Selena and company had perfected over the years.

This is say Lena, This is her like everything about this hits. The red lipsticks, the simplicity of the makeup, the body yaddi yadi, the crop top, the hair on her head being like wild and free. The font this is the Selena font. When you think of Selena's name, it is written in one font. She owned this font.

This is it yeah and in red hello.

And this album had banger after banger after banger. I mean La Caracacca, but also like Las Cadna's Gomo La floor, sila quiere is like there's a lot here.

Unlike the self titled record, the Selena we see on the album cover here is her own woman she's wearing an outfit she designed herself.

An outfit that once again said Abraham's hair on end. But by that point Selena had staked out her territory and no one could argue. With the album.

Sales, Interramimundo fild fifty thousand copies in pre sale and would peak at the number one spot on Billboard's Regional Mexican Albums.

Chart, dethroning one of the Hano music's long standing acts, La Mafia, granting Selena her first certified gold album and cementing Selena's status as the Queen of.

The huntm Interramimundo singles La Carcacca, Gomona Floor, tekre Jaz and Amame would come to dominate airwaves in Texas.

And in Mexico. To boost the album, EMI Latin President Jose Bihar sent Selena on a press tour in Monterrey.

The Mexican press would call Selena an artist of the people, and Comona Floor climbed the Mexican charts along with Intremimundo.

All throughout Texas, Selena played sold out shows, including a record breaking show at the Houston Astrodome attended by nearly fifty eight thousand people.

In Mexico. She was the standout of the Festival Acapulco nineteen ninety three, and she drew seventy thousand attendees to her show at La Verria and then We Will Leon.

The same band that had struggled to get through the door at the Hannel music venues throughout the Corpus Christi area was now playing two massive crowds.

This incredible moment in Selena Elosdino's career would be immortalized in their nineteen ninety three live album Selena Live.

If you are new to Selena, and what I mean by new to Selena meaning you've never watched her performances, you've only watched the movie or you've only listened to the songs, I really encourage you to go back and watch the videos of her live performances. There's two in particular that for me are the moment where she's performing Gomola floor and by les La Cumbia. I think that's from the live album that performance, and then also when she's at the Ferria Monterrey when she performs La Carcacca.

No, she was just vibing out. And that's what I think that people could see.

You look at the stage presence that she has in these clips. She really was such an icon. Like it's incredible to watch her and the band just takes their cue from her, like they're gonna riff as long as she's gonna dance and as long as the crowd is loving it. She's there to serve one community only, and that is every person in the audience.

That's it, and you see it, like watching these videos, I was just kind of like, wow, like she just feels at home.

She had it. Selena electrified the crowd with her vocals and her charm. She had turned out to be every bit a star as Abraham imagined back in his mentor's record shop. On the next Becoming an Icon, Selena's rise is cut tragically short. Becoming an Icon is presented by Sonoo and Iheart's Michael gudda podcast network. Listen to becoming an icon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast