The biggest piece of Selena news in 2018 was the announcement of the Netflix series.
I don’t know about you but I didn’t see this coming at all!
But my first initial thoughts were “Now didn’t we already have this with the movie?” and thought for a split second that maybe this was overkill.
Then I thought about it- The movie is a little over 2 hours in length. How much of her life did they really capture? They hit some major points like the band starting out, Selena and Chris and her English album. But there are so many other significant parts that they either skipped over or spent a few minutes on due to time. Imagine the stories they can share over a mini-series!
Let’s have a look at some major points in her life that the movie didn’t have time to explore.
The early touring years
Now the movie did touch on the start of their career as a child, but they didn’t go into detail of their early gigs. They have her up singing at Papagayos, some local fair and a montage of her singing at various events. I’d love to see the actual hardships of touring at the start. There are stories I’ve heard over the years with interviews of band members recalling having to take “showers” in gas station bathrooms, eating hot dogs and beans out of the can for dinner and their homemade light setups made with aluminium cans. Seeing the Quintanillas struggle and then slowly make their way to the top would make for some great binge material.
Her entire mid-1980’s career 
From 1986-1989, Selena had a new album out every year. They weren’t multi-platinum albums but they created a name for the Dinos and some Tejano hits for her. This is the period of time where she was doing covers of Janet Jackson, Debbie Gibson and yet was still doing some traditional Tejano. She was starting to dominate the Tejano Music Awards and really find her style and become truly comfortable on stage. This part of her career is usually overshadowed but I think this is the time where some of her best, catchy, but lesser known tunes came out. (Corazoncito or Soy Amiga anyone?) Plus that hair. I need to see someone else rock that 80’s perm.
Getting the EMI Latin contract
Once again, this is a huge part of her career that wasn’t touched on in the movie. Although there is a deleted scene on the DVD of them getting a call about it. I’m surprised it wasn’t included.
This showed that all their persistence paid off and opened doors into new places like Latin America and eventually into mainstream pop music. This was exactly what they were working for. They weren’t just a Tejano band out of Texas anymore but an international act. I’d love to see a scene of her getting the news or recording it or seeing the finished product.
Her good and bad days
Something I loved about Chris’s book was him showing the human side of her. Now don’t get me wrong, she was a lovely and kind person. But like any other person, she had her bad days and I’m sure some quirks. Some of the stories that I think really humanised her was her and Chris fighting on the bus and her telling Chris to throw out a cd because the cover was “evil”. I love these little stories about her to make her seem easier to relate to.
It probably won’t happen as I know the family likes to keep her image as cheerful and positive as possible which is fine and totally up to them.
The Aftermath 
Ok so maybe this is just me. The movie shows that she died and a nice tribute and it ends there. Now don’t get me wrong, I liked the way they chose to wrap it up. But I’d love for them to showcase how the media exploded at the time of her passing and how she still has a huge part in pop culture. I’m not saying we need a play by play of the court sessions but it would be fascinating to see a peek into the Quintanilla’s life afterward and how she’s still very much present today.
Keep in mind this is not meant to be released til 2020 so we have a while to go. I cannot wait to see the casting choices. Fans are so used to associating her with Jennifer Lopez so it’s going to be an interesting shift to add another actress to it. Those are going to be big shoes to fill but it’s going to be such an amazing opportunity for some Latina actress out there!
Is there any parts of her life that you want to see played out? I’d love to hear it ❤
thoughts for the more than casual Selena fan. 