,type=downsize)
Rosalía is the latest artist to react to the Selena Quintanilla effect. The Spanish singer took social media to share videos jamming to the Queen of Tejano music’s best hits. The 27-year-old “Con Altura” interpreter shared on Instagram her carpool karaoke ride with her friend and choreographer Charm La Donna.
The pair danced and sing to the rhythm of “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom” and “Como la Flor.”
But Rosalía is not the only one keeping Selena’s music alive; recently, Maliya Kabs, a four-year-old British girl, went viral and made headlines after belting out Quintanilla’s iconic songs in perfect Spanish.
Known as “Mali,” the little singer is part of a famous YouTube family that dedicates their time to entertaining their more than 900,000 followers. “The best bits for us is to spending time together and working as a family,” Mali’s mom, Chan Kabs, told The Mirror. “I think because we all do enjoy it so much, it’s great to do something you love and spend time with your family. We‘re able to get really more involved in their life, whereas when you’re working, nine to five, you can miss so much.”
Undoubtedly, Selena Quintanilla has become a potent symbol of Latinidad — or like Maria Garcia, host of the new podcast Anything for Selena , would say: “An an unparalleled vessel for understanding Latino identity and American belonging.”
Among all Selena’s biggest hits, “Dreaming of You” has a special place in Garcia’s heart. “‘Dreaming of You’ is a song that makes me long for her. Makes me long to see what kind of an artist she would have been now,” she told The Chart Show with Brooke Reese on Apple Music 1.
© Iliana Galvez / Anything for Selena“What kind of causes she would have gotten behind now. What things she was she has spoken about now. And what kind of art would she have been creating. I strongly believe, that maybe it would have been Selena instead of Rosalía , with Bad Bunny on SNL. That she would be doing Latin Trap and some sort of Reggaeton Cumbia. That she would still very much be a vanguard of music, of culture, of art,” she said
Garcia is committed to analyze and share how Selena’s legacy is not superficial. “Her legacy hasn‘t been fully done justice. I mean, it’s so easy every year to put out the most basic Selena content, and there’s still so much hunger for it and for it to perform relatively well sort of in the ether,” she said. “But in terms of an actual reckoning, an actual unpacking, a detailed, rigorous analysis of exactly how she changed the world. That hasn’t fully been done. And so that’s what I hope the podcast is a pathway to do.”
