''Selena: The Series'' (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

: ''Selena: la serie'') is an American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

television series created by

Moisés Zamora Moisés Zamora is a Mexican-American writer, director, and producer. He is best known as the creator of the Netflix's '' Selena: The Series''. He was a staff writer for American Crime and Star. Early life Zamora was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, ...

. It tells the story of

Tejano Tejanos (, ; singular: ''Tejano/a''; Spanish for "Texan", originally borrowed from the Caddo ''tayshas'') are the residents of the state of Texas who are culturally descended from the Mexican population of Tejas and Coahuila that lived in t ...

singer Selena Quintanilla Pérez's rise to fame and the sacrifices she and her family must make along the way. The first season was released on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a ...

on December 4, 2020. The second and final season premiered on May 4, 2021.

Synopsis

The story of the Tejana singer

Selena Quintanilla Selena Quintanilla Pérez (; April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known mononymously as Selena, was an American Tejano singer. Called the " Queen of Tejano music", her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mex ...

, from her childhood to her rise to fame, along with the difficult and heartbreaking tough choices she and her family make to hold on to love and music.

Cast and characters

Main

Christian Serratos Christian Marie Serratos MovieTome ( born Bernardi, ; born September 21, 1990) is an American actress who played Rosita Espinosa in AMC's '' The Walking Dead'' TV series, based on the comic book of the same name. She is also known for playing Suz ...

Selena Selena Quintanilla Pérez (; April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), known mononymously as Selena, was an American Tejano singer. Called the " Queen of Tejano music", her contributions to music and fashion made her one of the most celebrated Mex ...

** Madison Taylor Baez as Young Selena *

Gabriel Chavarria Gabriel Chavarria (born April 29, 1989) is an American actor. He played Jacob Aguilar in Hulu's ''East Los High'' and was the lead during Season One of USA Network's ''The Purge''. Career In 2007, Chavarria made his film debut ''Freedom Writers' ...

A.B. Quintanilla Abraham Quintanilla III (born December 13, 1963), known professionally as A.B. Quintanilla III or A.B. Quintanilla, is an American record producer, songwriter and musician, and the older brother of singer Selena, known as " The Queen of Tejano ...

** Juan Martinez as Young A.B. *

Ricardo Chavira Ricardo Antonio Chavira (born September 1, 1971) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Carlos Solis in the ABC television series ''Desperate Housewives'' (2004–2012). He also played Abraham Quintanilla in the Netflix original se ...

Abraham Quintanilla Abraham Isaac Quintanilla Jr. (born February 20, 1939)Patoski page 2 is an American singer, songwriter, and producer. He is the father of Tejano singer Selena and was her manager throughout her life. Quintanilla was born to a Mexican-American fa ...

** Brandol Ruiz as Young Abraham *

Noemi Gonzalez Noemí Artemisa González is an American actress. She portrayed Soli Gomez in the Hulu series ''East Los High'' and portrayed the character of Mia Rosales on CBS Daytime soap opera ''The Young and the Restless'' from 2018 to 2019. Early years and ...

Suzette Quintanilla Selena y Los Dinos ( en, Selena and the Guys, Selena And the Dinos=Selena And The Dinos) was an American Tejano band formed in 1981 by Tejano singer Selena and her father Abraham Quintanilla. The band remained together until the murder of Sel ...

** Daniela Estrada as Young Suzette *

Seidy López Seidy López is a Mexican-American actress and director. López is best known for her starring debut in the critically acclaimed film '' Mi Vida Loca''. She appeared in '' Solo'', the hit film '' Selena'', an episode of '' ER'' directed by Quent ...

as Marcella Quintanilla ** Aneasa Yacoub as Young Marcella

Recurring

Hunter Reese Peña Hunter Reese Peña is an American actor, singer, and writer born to Mexican immigrant parents. Hunter is best known for portraying "Ricky Vela" in the Netflix television series '' Selena: The Series''. Life Hunter is a bilingual actor in Holl ...

Ricky Vela Ricardo Vela is an American musician and songwriter who was the keyboardist for the band Selena y Los Dinos from 1984 to 1995. Works Vela has either written or co-written the following songs that topped on ''Billboard'' 200, ''Billboard'' Latin ...

* Luis Bordonada as

Johnny Canales Juan José "Johnny" Canales (born 1947 in General Treviño, Nuevo León, Mexico) is a Mexican retired Tejano singer and former host of the television show "''The Johnny Canales Show''". Canales is credited with one of the first live performances o ...

* Paul Rodriguez as

Roger Garcia Roger is a given name, usually masculine, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") and ', ' ( ...

* Carlos Alfredo Jr. as Joe Ojeda *

Julio Macias Julio Arturo Macias (born March 20, 1990) is a Mexican actor. Following a series of cameo appearances, Macias had his breakthrough playing Oscar Diaz on the comedy-drama series ''On My Block'' (2018–2021), for which he received two Imagen Aw ...

Pete Astudillo Pedro Astudillo (born December 1, 1963) is an American singer and songwriter. He was a backup vocalist for Selena y Los Dinos and has released several albums as a solo artist. Early life Astudillo was born on December 1, 1963, in Laredo, Texas, ...

* Gladys Bautista as Vangie *

Bryan Arion Bryan Arion is a Mexican actor and model best known for his roles in television series such as Selena: The Series and The Last Ship. Early life Arion was born in Chilpancingo, Guerrero, Mexico, a city known for its drug cartels. His family ...

as Ray * Jesse Posey as

Chris Pérez Christopher Gilbert Pérez (born August 14, 1969) is an American guitarist, best known as lead guitarist for the Tejano band Selena y Los Dinos. He married the frontwoman of the group, Selena, on April 2, 1992. Pérez grew up in San Antonio, Te ...

* Rico Aragon as

José Behar José Behar is a Cuban-American music executive. Behar has headed EMI Latin and Univision Music Group. He is known to have signed Selena. José Behar was appointed to run the new Latin division in EMI Records. Univision Music Group in 2001. H ...

* Christian Escobar as Bill Arriaga * Natasha Perez as

Yolanda Saldivar Yolanda may refer to: * Yolanda (name), a given name derived from the Greek ''Iolanthe'' Places * Yolanda, California * Yolanda Shrine, monument located at Barangay Anibong, Tacloban, Leyte Film * ''Yolanda'' (film), a 1924 film starring ...

Guests

* Christopher Parks as Lee Ritenour *

David Barrera David Joel Barrera (born December 28, 1968) is an American actor. He is best known for his role as Gunnery Sgt. Ray 'Casey Kasem' Griego in '' Generation Kill''. He has appeared in television series including ''Grimm'', '' Heroes'', '' CSI: Miami ...

as Hector * Oscar Avila as

Manny Guerra Manny Guerra is an American record producer, music engineer, and recording artist, who specializes in Tejano music. Guerra started in the industry playing with Sunny and the Sunglows, recording hit singles such as " Talk to Me", which peaked at ...

* Casey Tutton as Jilly * Catia Ojeda as

Laura Canales Laura Canales (August 19, 1954 – April 16, 2005) was an American Tejano musician and an original inductee in the Tejano Roots Hall of Fame. Canales was born in Kingsville, Texas. Early years Laura Canales was raised in Kingsville, Texas. She ...

* Mark Atkinson as

Denny's Denny's (also known as Denny's Diner on some of the locations' signage) is an American table service diner-style restaurant chain. It operates over 1,700 restaurants in many countries. Description Originally opened as a coffee shop under th ...

manager * David Fernandez Jr. as David Kramer * Joe Lorenzo as Luis Silva * Shauntè Massard as

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed "Honorific nicknames in popular music, The Voice", she is Whitney Houston albums discography, one of the bestselling music artists ...

* Giovanna Bush as Young Beyoncé *

Marcela Guirado Marcela Guirado (born 24 October 1989) is a Mexican actress and singer. Born in Guadalajara Jalisco, Mexico, Guirado is best known for her works in telenovelas with the Mexican television channel TV Azteca. Recently she has been made known to the ...

Verónica Castro Verónica Castro (), full name Verónica Judith Sáinz Castro (born 19 October 1952), is a Mexican actress, singer, producer, former model and presenter. She started her career as a television actress, where she met comedian Manuel Valdés, f ...

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2020)

Season 2 (2021)

Production

Development

On December 11, 2018, ''Selena: The Series'' was ordered to series by

. The series is produced by Campanario Entertainment with Selena's father (

Abraham Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the Covenant (biblical), special ...

) and sister (Suzette), from a screenplay by Moisés Zamora for

. It is based on the life of

, and is the version authorized by Selena's family, unlike ''

El secreto de Selena ''El secreto de Selena'' (English: ''Selena's Secret'') is an American television series produced by BTF Media and co-produced by Disney Media Distribution for Telemundo, and it is based on the bestselling book by Emmy Award-winning journalist Ma ...

'', an unauthorized version by

María Celeste Arrarás María Celeste Arrarás Mangual (born September 27, 1960), better known as María Celeste, is a Puerto Rican broadcast journalist, author, and television personality, who has won three national Emmy Awards for journalism. In 2005, she became the ...

, which the family publicly condemned. Part one of the series was released on December 4, 2020. The second part of the series premiered on May 4, 2021.

Casting

The series stars

as the titular character. ''

Deadline Deadline(s) or The Deadline(s) may refer to: * Time limit, a narrow field of time by which an objective must be accomplished Arts, entertainment, and media Comics * Deadline (DC Comics), a fictional villain * ''Deadline'' (magazine), a Britis ...

'' later reported that "Other cast members include

(''

The Young and the Restless ''The Young and the Restless'' (often abbreviated as ''Y&R'') is an American television soap opera created by William J. Bell and Lee Phillip Bell for CBS. The show is set in fictional Genoa City (not the real-life similarly-named Genoa City ...

'') as

, Selena's sister and best friend, who learns to embrace her role as the first female drummer in Tejano music history.

(''

Training Day ''Training Day'' is a 2001 American crime thriller film directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by David Ayer. It stars Denzel Washington as Alonzo Harris and Ethan Hawke as Jake Hoyt, two LAPD narcotics officers over a 24-hour period in the gang- ...

'') will play Marcella Quintanilla, Selena's mother; and newcomer Madison Taylor Baez will portray a young Selena."

and

were to play Selena's father and brother respectively. It was later announced the series would include Julio Macias, Jesse Posey,

Hunter Reese Hunter Reese (born January 11, 1993) is an American tennis player. Reese currently competes in doubles mainly on the ATP Challenger Tour. He has won 10 Challenger titles and has a career-high doubles ranking of No. 73 achieved on 27 June 2022. ...

, Carlos Alfredo, Jr., Juan Martinez, Daniela Estrada and Paul Rodriguez, Jr. co-starring in the series as the Quintanila family and various other important members of Selena's life. Macias plays

, with Posey as

Chris Perez Chris is a short form of various names including Christopher, Christian (given name), Christian, Christina (given name), Christina, Christine (name), Christine, and Christos (given name), Christos. Chris is also used as a name in its own right, ...

, Peña as

, and Alfredo as Joe Ojeda. Martinez portrays a young

, Selena's brother, with Estrada as a young

, Selena's sister, and Rodriguez as Roger Garcia, a shy guitarist who was part of the group before Chris Perez became its guitarist. Additionally co-starring Johnny Jay Lee ('' NCIS: Los Angeles'') and Fernanda Moya as the young man and woman respectively.

Filming

Filming began in early October 2019 in

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

, Mexico in places such as

Rosarito Rosarito is a coastal city in Playas de Rosarito Municipality, Baja California, situated on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. As of 2010, the city had a population of 65,278. Located south of the US-Mexico border, Rosarito is a part of the greater ...

Tecate Tecate () is a city in Tecate Municipality, Baja California. It is across the Mexico-US border from Tecate, California. As of 2019, the city had a population of 108,860 inhabitants, while the metropolitan area has a population of 132,406 inha ...

and

Tijuana Tijuana ( ,"Tijuana"
(US) and < ...

revealed in an interview with the

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

that she recently finished filming the show's second season - under the health and safety protocols of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickl ...

in November 2020.

Soundtrack

Commercial performance

''Selena: The Series Soundtrack'' debuted at number 8 on the

Latin Pop Albums Latin Pop Albums is a record chart published on ''Billboard'' magazine. It features Latin music information of the Pop music genre. Established in June 1985, this chart features only full-length albums and like all album charts on ''Billboard'', ...

chart, selling 1,000

album-equivalent unit The album-equivalent unit, or album equivalent, is a measurement unit in music industry to define the consumption of music that equals the purchase of one album copy. This consumption includes streaming and song downloads in addition to tradit ...

s during the week ending December 10, 2020.

Reception

Critical response

For part 1 of the series, review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reported an approval rating of 32% based on 34 critic reviews, with an average rating of 5.35/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "''Selena: The Series'' affections are obvious, but by not probing deeper into Selena herself it fails to capture the woman behind the legacy, settling for just-another-retelling of the charismatic star's life instead of something more."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

gave the series a weighted average score of 48 out of 100 based on 9 critic reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews". For part 2 of the series, review aggregator

reported an approval rating of 14% based on 7 critic reviews, with an average rating of 4.42/10.

Audience viewership

On January 15, 2021, Netflix announced that the series was watched by 25 million households for the first 28 days after its debut.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{Netflix original ended series (2019–present) 2020 American television series debuts 2020s American drama television series 2021 American television series endings American biographical series American drama web series Cultural depictions of Selena American English-language television shows Netflix television dramas Hispanic and Latino American television Spanish-language television shows Television series based on singers and musicians Television series set in the 1980s Television series set in the 1990s Television shows set in San Antonio Television shows set in Texas Television shows set in Mexico Spanish-language television programming in the United States