| Dreaming of You | ||||
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| Released | July 18, 1995 | |||
| Recorded | December 1994 – March 1995 | |||
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| Length | 51:23 | |||
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| Selena chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Dreaming of You | ||||
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Dreaming of You is the fifth and final studio album by American singer Selena. Released posthumously on July 18, 1995, by EMI Latin and EMI Records, it was an immediate commercial and critical success, debuting atop the United States Billboard 200—the first predominately Spanish-language album to do so. It sold 175,000 copies on its first day of release in the U.S.—a then-record for a female vocalist. With first week sales of 331,000 units, it became the second-highest first-week sales for a female musician since Nielsen Soundscan began monitoring album sales in 1991. Billboard magazine declared it a "historic" event, while Time said the recording elevated Selena's music to a wider audience. It won Album of the Year at the 1996 Tejano Music Awards and Female Pop Album of the Year at the 3rd annual Billboard Latin Music Awards.
After signing a recording contract with EMI Latin in 1989, the label denied Selena a requested crossover after she made three demonstration recordings. After her Grammy Award nomination for Live (1993) was announced, Selena signed with SBK Records to begin recording her crossover album, which was front-page news in Billboard magazine. In March 1994, she released Amor Prohibido; in interviews she said her English-language album was still being developed. Recording sessions for Dreaming of You began in December 1994; Selena recorded four tracks slated for the album. On March 31, 1995, she was murdered by Yolanda Saldívar, the former manager of her Selena Etc. boutiques over a dispute about claims of embezzlement.
The album contains some previously released material, as well as some unreleased English and Spanish-language tracks that were recorded between 1992 and 1995. The tracks are a mixture of American pop and Latin music, with the first half of Dreaming of You containing English-language R&B and pop ballads, while the latter half profiles Selena's Latin-themed repertoire, making this her only album to feature English-language songs instead of exclusively Spanish-language songs as with her past four albums. Six tracks from the album were released as singles. The first four singles, "I Could Fall in Love", "Tú Sólo Tú", "Techno Cumbia", and "Dreaming of You", charted within the top ten on the U.S. charts. The title track became Selena's highest-charting Billboard Hot 100 single of her career, peaking at number twenty-two.
Dreaming of You was among the top ten best-selling debuts for a musician, best-selling debut by a female act[nb 1] and the fastest-selling U.S. album of 1995. It has since been ranked among the best and most important recordings produced during the rock and roll era. Media outlets have since ranked the recording among the best posthumous releases. When Dreaming of You peaked at number one, Tejano music entered the mainstream market. Music critics said the general population of the U.S. would not have known about Tejano or Latin music had it not been for Dreaming of You. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the record 59x platinum (Latin field), with sales of 3.549 million album-equivalent units in the U.S.. The album was eventually certified gold by Music Canada and by Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas (AMPROFON). As of January 2015[update], the album has sold five million copies worldwide. With sales of three million copies, it is the best-selling Latin album of all-time in the U.S. as of December 2020[update].
- ^ Gutirrez 2004, p. 379.
- ^ Lannert, John (December 23, 1995). "Latin '95 Marked By One Name: Selena". Billboard. Vol. 107, no. 51. p. 52. Retrieved June 10, 2016.
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