Selena albums discography

American singer Selena has released five studio albums, three live albums, one soundtrack and twenty-one compilation albums. Credited for elevating a music genre into the mainstream market,^[1] Selena remains the best-selling Tejano recording artist whose posthumous releases continue to outsell those of living musicians.^{[nb 1]} As of 2015, the singer has sold 60 million copies worldwide,^[7] and was named the "Top Latin Artist of the '90s" and "Best-selling Latin Artist of the Decade" by Billboard magazine.^[8] In 1995, Selena was inducted into the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame,^[9] the Hard Rock Cafe's Hall of Fame,^[10] the South Texas Music Hall of Fame,^[11] and the Tejano Music Hall of Fame in 2001.^[12]

Selena's career began as lead vocalist of Los Dinos in 1980. She signed with EMI Latin nine years later as a solo artist though her band continued to tour with her.^[13] She released her self-titled debut album that same year, which peaked at number seven on the U.S. Billboard Regional Mexican Albums chart. With Selena, the singer outsold other female Tejano artists.^[14] She released her second album Ven Conmigo in October 1990; it peaked at number three on the Regional Mexican Albums chart. Ven Conmigo was later certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of 50,000 units, the first recording by a female Tejano artist to do so.^[15] As of 2010, Ven Conmigo had sold 500,000 copies in the United States. According to music critics, her next recording Entre a Mi Mundo (1992), was the "breakthrough album" of her musical career.^[16][17][18] The album and its lead single, "Como la Flor", helped launch the singer's career in Mexico.^[19][20] Entre a Mi Mundo peaked at number one on the Regional Mexican Albums chart for eight consecutive months;^[21] and was certified 6× platinum by the RIAA, signifying shipments of 600,000 units. Entre a Mi Mundo became the first Tejano recording by a female artist to sell over 300,000 copies.^{[nb 2]}

In 1993, Selena released Live, which contained three studio tracks. Live peaked at number two on the newly formed U.S. Billboard Top Latin Albums chart and at number two on the Regional Mexican Albums chart. The recording was certified gold by the RIAA for shipments of 500,000 copies. Selena's fourth album, Amor Prohibido (1994), was the last recording released by the singer before her death. The album peaked at number one on the Top Latin Albums and Regional Mexican Albums chart; it remained in the top five of the Latin Albums chart for the remainder of 1994 and 1995.^[24] By December 1994, Amor Prohibido became the second Tejano recording to achieve year-end sales of 500,000 copies.^[25] It was considered her "biggest album" and was credited with popularizing Tejano music with a younger, wider audience than any time in the genre's history.^[26][27] With Amor Prohibido, Selena was considered "bigger than Tejano itself", and broke barriers in the Latin music world.^[28] This prompted EMI to begin marketing Selena as an American pop artist, believing she had reached her peak in the Latin music market.^[29] Amor Prohibido has been certified double platinum by the RIAA, denoting two million copies shipped in the United States. The singer recorded four tracks slated for what would have been her English-language crossover album by March 1995. On 31 March 1995, Selena was shot dead by Yolanda Saldívar, her friend and a former employee of her Selena Etc. boutiques over disputed embezzlement claims.^[30]

EMI Records and EMI Latin jointly released Dreaming of You in July 1995. It sold 175,000 copies its first day of release, a then-record for a female vocalist.^[31][32] Dreaming of You debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart with 331,000 units sold its first week, the second largest first-week sales for a female musician.^[33][34][35] Dreaming of You became the first and only predominately Spanish-language album to debut and peak at number one on the Billboard 200 chart.^[11] Dreaming of You was among the top ten best-selling debuts for a musician, best-selling debut by a female act, and was the fastest-selling U.S. album in 1995.^[36] At the time, Dreaming of You helped Selena to become the fastest-selling female act in recorded music history,^[37] and has since been ranked among the best and most important recordings produced during the rock and roll era.^[38][39] With Dreaming of You peaking at number one, Tejano music entered the mainstream market.^[40][41] Music critics believed that the general population of the United States would not have known about Tejano or Latin music had it not been for Dreaming of You.^[42][43][40] As of January 2015, Dreaming of You has sold five million copies worldwide, and remains the best-selling Latin album of all-time in the United States.^[44] Since Selena's death, there have been twenty-three posthumous releases with the most recent, Lo Mejor de...Selena, released on the twentieth anniversary of her murder. The best-selling posthumous release was the 1997 soundtrack to the Selena film, which had sold 1.6 million copies as of 2005.

Albums

Studio albums

Soundtrack albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Remix albums

Box sets

See also

• Selena singles discography
• List of songs recorded by Selena
• Selena videography

Notes

References

Sources

External links

• Official website
• Selena albums discography discography at Discogs
• Selena at AllMusic