‘What Critics?’: Suzette Quintanilla Speaks Out Against Fans Accusing The Family Of Exploiting Selena’s Legacy
The new Selena single “Como Te Quiero Yo A Ti” is officially out, with her upcoming album “Moonchild Mixes” set to be released on August 26.
In light of the new music, fans are questioning whether the Quintanilla estate is exploiting the late Tejano singer’s legacy— but her sister Suzette is speaking out.
Siblings Suzette and A.B. Quintanilla sat down with Good Morning America to promote the new single, which is a reworked version of a song released in 2004 as part of Selena’s “Momentos Intimos” album. While many fans on social media are swooning over the new single, there has been much talk about how fair it is for the family to profit off of Selena forever.
A.B. Quintanilla explained that he produced the new arrangements of the songs on the album, and that the process took him “over a year.” He explained, “there [were] a lot of obstacles to overcome. Everything was recorded on vinyl, so we had to kind of fuse the old school ways with the new school ways.”
Talking about how much work was put into the new album, the producer and musician also said he pitched Selena’s vocals down to make her sound more “mature.”
As Quintanilla patriarch Abraham explained to Latin Groove News earlier this year, many of the album’s songs use vocals recorded by Selena when she was just 13. For that reason, they used “computers” to make her voice sound like it did “before she passed away.”
Meanwhile, Suzette says the finished product is uncanny: “it truly feels like she went in the studio again and recorded it… It’s pretty incredible.”
So what about the critics accusing the family of taking advantage of the late “Queen of Tejano Music”? Suzette told GMA, “What critics? We don’t care about them.”
She continued, “We’re still going to do what we want with our music, with our sister, with our band.” One wish she has now that the new music is being released? “I hope people understand that everything that we do we do with love and care, and beauty.”
The siblings also talked about what they believe Selena would think of the album if she was still alive. The singer’s older sister thinks she “would have loved it.” Her brother added with a laugh, “[She would have] said ‘It’s a wrap, I need to go to the mall.’”
About his iconic sister’s eternal legacy, A.B. explained, “It’s a beautiful thing… to see that she is remembered… What we’re doing is honoring her memory.” Suzette added that Selena was not just an amazing singer, she was “an incredible person.”
Suzette continued, “What she means to us as Latinos… she means something… The younger generation [is] discovering her.”
Which is exactly why the family felt it was “really important to breathe new life into this old music and have it created for the newer generation.”
