Selena to Receive Posthumous Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Selena Quintanilla’s death and her star continues to shine with the latest announcement that the Grammy’s will be honoring her with a posthumous Lifetime Achievement award. The beloved Tejano icon won the Best Mexican-American album at the 36th Annual Grammy Awards for her 1993 release Selena Live! recorded during a concert at the Memorial Coliseum in Corpus Christi.That win made her the first female Tejano artist to win the category. She joins other Latino Lifetime Achievement Award recipients including Tejano star Flaco Jiménez, Celia Cruz, Julio Iglesias, and Linda Ronstadt.

“As a music creator and music lover, I am grateful that we are able to look back at our influences and see the impact that they have made on our community. In a year where music has helped keep us together, I look forward to honoring this iconic group of music creators,” Harvey Mason Jr., the Recording Academy’s interim president and CEO, said in a statement.

“The goal isn’t to live forever, but to create something that will…” -Selena Quintanilla 💜

— Selena (@SelenaLaLeyenda) December 22, 2020

Following the announcement her official Twitter account issued a statement quoting Selena: “The goal isn’t to liver forever, but to create something that will.” Her popularity and influence was also solidified that week with Google Trends revealing that Selena ranked #3 as the most Googled woman in Latin or Spanish music worldwide this year. This year also marks the release of Netflix’s Selena: The Series, documenting the icon’s rise to fame before she was tragically murdered in 1995. Though the series was not well received by some devoted Selena fans, the series premiered at #1 and has introduced younger generations to the life story of the Queen of Tejano Music.

Before the series, the 1997 eponymous biopic starring Jennifer Lopez was the sole TV/film project approved by her family. The film includes the moment Selena won the Grammy award, her only win which came a year before her untimely death at the age of 23. She was also nominated for Best Mexican-American Performance for “Amor Prohibido” that year for 1994 album of the same name. Her music continues to reach millions with 213.6 million streams on Spotify, 15.6 million listeners, and reaching 92 countries.

The lifetime achievement award is voted on by the Recording Academy’s National Trustees and given to performers who, during their lifetimes, have made creative contributions of outstanding artistic significance to the field of recording, according to their site. The other artists set to be honored are Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, Lionel Hampton, Marilyn Horne, Salt-N-Pepa, and Talking Heads.

The 2021 Grammys are set to air on CBS on Jan. 31.

Update:  The Grammys are now airing Sunday, March 14