‘Selena’ Is Hitting Theaters Again in Honor of Its 25th Anniversary
Who can believe its been 25 years since the movie “Selena” came and changed our lives forever.
In 1997, “Selena” hit theaters, and instantly became a beloved classic that launched the career of the then-newcomer Jennifer Lopez and cemented Selena Quintanilla as a timeless cultural icon.
According to a post on the official Instagram page of Selena Quintanilla, the 1997 movie is being re-released in movie theaters across the country starting on April 7 in honor of its 25th anniversary.
“Celebrating a legend, her legacy and music, ‘Selena’ will be released in theaters nationwide starting April 7th,” read the announcement. “Rediscover a family’s story of dedication, perseverance and hope in breaking a male dominated music genre and taking the world by storm.”
Jennifer Lopez also took to her social media to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the movie that started it all for her.
“What a very special day… we’re celebrating 25 years of SELENA!,” she wrote on Instagram. “Today we celebrate and honor Selena’s legacy and music. This movie means so much to me… Selena and her family mean so much to me, and I was so lucky to be chosen to play her. I’ll never forget this time in my life and it’s an honor as an artist to have been part of the magic that is this movie.”
Lopez paired the heartfelt caption with a montage of clips of her both promoting and performing in “Selena.”
The first clip shows her on a 1997 appearance of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” talking about all the preparation that went into her role as Selena.
“It was nonstop. I was working on another movie at that time, and in my trailer it was like music all day, videos all day, just to really absorb who she was,” Lopez told Oprah. “She was a very, very happy and alive person. I just absorbed as much as I could of her and tried to understand what made her tick, what made her happy, what made her sad.”
The following slides on JLo’s post showed her in full costume on the set of “Selena,” clips of her singing as Selena, and behind-the-scenes interviews of her talking about what made Selena Quintanilla so beloved in Latino communities everywhere.
“One of the huge appeals of Selena, one of the reasons she was so popular, was because she didn’t change herself,” Lopez explained. “Sometimes when you turn on Spanish television, you see a lot of women with their hair dyed blonde and all this stuff, and Selena wasn’t like that. She would stand up there, and you would look up at her, and if you were Latin in the audience, you’ll go, ‘That’s me. That’s me up there. That’s what I look like.’”
Based on the social media reactions to the news of the re-release of “Selena,” it appears that people couldn’t be happier to get a chance to re-watch one of their favorite movies on the big screen.
After tagging her friend in a comment, one fan wrote: “We going to go see it together 25 years later again [and] cry like we did as little girls?”
Most likely, yes.