Amor Prohibido
Amor Prohibido (English: Forbidden Love)[1] is the fourth studio album by American singer Selena,[Note 1] released on March 22, 1994, by EMI Latin.[2] Having reached a core fan base, the label aimed to broaden her appeal with the next studio release. Finding it challenging to write a follow-up hit after "Como la Flor" (1992), Selena's brother A. B. Quintanilla enlisted the assistance from band members Ricky Vela and Pete Astudillo with writing the album's songs. The resulting album has a more mature sound featuring experimental production that blends diverse musical styles from ranchera to hip-hop music. Amor Prohibido is a Tejano cumbia album modernized with a synthesizer-rich delivery using a minimalist style that was quintessential in early 1990s Tejano music.
This article is about the Selena album. For other uses, see Amor Prohibido (disambiguation).Amor Prohibido
March 22, 1994
September 1993-February 1994
35:27
Spanish
The album's songs deal with dysfunctional and volatile relationships; its lyrics explore unrequited love, infidelity, and social division. With relatively few love songs, Amor Prohibido narrates a woman's struggles and triumphs following unsuccessful relationships with men who struggle with commitment. The album continued the singer's streak of number-one singles on the United States Billboard Hot Latin Songs chart with the title track "Amor Prohibido"— which became the most successful US Latin single of 1994, a feat she repeated the following year with "No Me Queda Más". Along with the latter, "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom" and "Fotos y Recuerdos" also topped the US Latin chart, and together with "Si Una Vez" are regarded as Selena's signature recordings.
When the album tour broke attendance records at the Houston Astrodome and attracted a record-breaking crowd at Miami's Calle Ocho Festival, Selena became recognized as one of the biggest US Latin touring acts at that time. Amor Prohibido became the first Tejano record to peak at number one on the Billboard Top Latin Albums chart, remaining in the top five for 98 consecutive weeks. The album holds the record for most weeks at number one on Billboard's Regional Mexican Albums chart at 97 nonconsecutive weeks, as well as crowning the chart in four different calendar years. Amor Prohibido received critical acclaim: it is considered to be Selena's best work and her band's "crowning achievement". The album's sound received the highest acclaim, it was noted by critics to have retained its innovative spirit well into the 21st century. Amor Prohibido is credited with catapulting Tejano music into mainstream success resulting in sales to listeners previously unfamiliar with the genre. Amor Prohibido was nominated for Best Mexican-American Album at the 37th Grammy Awards. The record took Album of the Year honors at the 1995 TMA's and the Lo Nuestro Award for Best Regional Mexican Album.
On March 31, 1995, Selena was murdered by her friend and former manager of her Selena Etc. boutiques, Yolanda Saldívar. The record re-entered the Billboard 200 chart, peaking at number 29 and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Within three weeks, it was certified platinum and was re-certified by the RIAA as 41× platinum (Latin), denoting 2.46 million album-equivalent units sold. Amor Prohibido is the second-highest certified Latin album in the United States trailing only her posthumous album Dreaming of You (1995), the fourth best-selling Latin album in the US, the best-selling Tejano recording of the 1990s, and remains the best-selling Tejano recording of all time. Amor Prohibido has been ranked among the most essential Latin recordings of the past 50 years by Billboard magazine, while Rolling Stone magazine named it one of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. NPR ranked the album number 19 on their list of the 150 greatest albums made by women; it was the highest-ranking album by a female Latin artist and ninth highest-ranking recording by a woman of color.
Production and development[edit]
Background[edit]
Following the release of Selena's third studio album Entre a Mi Mundo and the launch of a clothing boutique in 1993,[3] the singer and her band began working on Amor Prohibido.[4] Having achieved the success and fan base that EMI Latin's president Jose Behar was seeking, Behar aimed to capitalize on Selena's broad appeal with the next studio release.[5] The label was keen to use a Grammy Award-winning producer instead of the singer's brother, A.B. Quintanilla.[6] A.B. knew Selena's musical tastes and vocal range,[7] though he found that he needed to outdo himself to remain her principal record producer.[6] He found it challenging to meet expectations after the commercial success of Entre a Mi Mundo and its career-launching single "Como la Flor".[4][8][9] When A.B. met with record executives in New York City and Nashville, they pressured him to come up with another successful song.[10] He felt it was important that the music he produced for Selena remain fresh.[4] He stressed that writing a successful song following "Como la Flor" was infeasible—as he expressed to Billboard, "you don't try to outdo a hit, you just write another hit".[10] As with previous albums, A.B. enlisted Selena y Los Dinos band members, Pete Astudillo and Ricky Vela, to help with the writing process.[4] The result included a mature sound for Selena with experimental recording and production than her previous works.[4][11][12] It was the final album featuring production and songwriting by Astudillo, who subsequently parted with Los Dinos to pursue a solo career.[4][11]
Commercial performance[edit]
Chart history[edit]
Amor Prohibido debuted at number three on the US Billboard Top Latin Albums chart the week ending April 9, 1994.[169] The following week it rose to number two and received the greatest jump in sales for that week.[169] In an interview with Billboard, A.B. was frustrated that the album had yet reached number one. He explained that they were limited in their capabilities with Tejano music and spoke about his excitement when Amor Prohibido finally topped the chart, saying the event "was a big thing [for us]."[10] Amor Prohibido peaked at number one in its tenth week, becoming the second album to place first on the newly formed Top Latin Albums chart displacing Cuban singer Gloria Estefan's Mi Tierra from the top spot.[170] Sales were so vigorous it nearly entered the US Billboard 200 and became the first Tejano record to peak at number one on the Top Latin Albums chart.[171] The event marked Selena as the "hottest artist in the Latino market."[171] The following week, the album entered the Billboard 200 chart at number 183, becoming the first record by a non-crossover act to do so since Mexican singer Luis Miguel's album Aries (1993).[172] The album also became the first recording by a Tejano singer to chart on the Billboard 200.[173] Mario Tarradell of The Dallas Morning News called the event "groundbreaking" and named Amor Prohibido as one of the most popular Latin recordings of 1994.[48] Amor Prohibido and Mi Tierra switched back and forth between the first and second positions on the Top Latin Albums chart for five consecutive weeks.[174]
On July 16, the album debuted at number 18 on the US Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart and ranked number one in the South Central United States region.[175] By May 1994, Amor Prohibido had outsold other competing Tejano albums and lead the list of best-selling Tejano records of 1994.[176] Amor Prohibido became the singer's third consecutive album to outsell men in the Tejano market who historically were unchallenged by women.[177][178] By June 1994, Amor Prohibido outsold ZZ Top and Willie Nelson's recent releases in the state of Texas.[179] Within 19 weeks of its release, the album outsold her previous recordings.[180] It was selling 2,000 units a week in Mexico,[181] while Selena was growing a following in Canada following the release of Amor Prohibido.[182] By November 1994 a report by Billboard showed the singer was one of the top-selling acts in Mexico.[148] Amor Prohibido finished 1994 as the fourth best-selling US Latin album and the best-selling regional Mexican album.[101] After 48 weeks at number one on the US Billboard Regional Mexican Albums chart, Amor Prohibido was displaced by Bronco's Rompiendo Barreras.[183] The recording became the second Tejano album to reach year-end sales of 500,000 copies, a feat that previously had only been accomplished by La Mafia.[166] Despite this, Nielsen Soundscan reported that the recording actually sold 184,000 units by April 1995.[184][Note 6] According to Behar, sales figures Nielsen Soundscan provides do not include sales in small shops specializing in Latin music.[185][186] Before Selena was murdered in March 1995, the album remained in the top five on the Top Latin Albums chart for 53 consecutive weeks.[184] Album sales in the four weeks preceding her death were slightly above 2,000 units a week.[187] In the week immediately before her death, Amor Prohibido sold 1,700 units.[188] In Mexico, Amor Prohibido sold 400,000 units by April 1995,[104] and subsequently received a gold certification.[189]
Posthumous commercial performance[edit]
Media attention had helped increased sales of Amor Prohibido as well as her back catalogue.[184] As a result, EMI Latin increased the production of the singer's albums at their Los Angeles, California, and Greensboro, North Carolina plants.[190] In the hours immediately after her death, it was the most requested album by people in music stores looking for her work.[191] An Austin, Texas music retailer expressed how Amor Prohibido sold more units in the first month following her death "than it did the entire year it was out."[192] This was echoed by a music wholesaler in Manhattan, who constantly sold out of Selena's albums the same day they received them, telling the local newspaper that "It used to be just the Mexicans [in Manhattan]. Now everybody likes her."[42] In McAllen, Texas, music shops reported that people bought the singer's earlier works than Amor Prohibido, citing that "most fans already have her latest [album]".[193] Music stores in Washington, DC, reportedly sold out of Amor Prohibido within days of her murder.[86] The album reached number one for the fifth time on April 15, 1995, with sales of 12,040 units - a 580% increase over the previous week.[184] The record subsequently re-entered the Billboard 200 chart at number 92 and at number one on the Regional Mexican Albums chart.[184] The album sold an additional 28,238 units (a 136% increase) and rose to number 36 on the Billboard 200 chart.[187] Amor Prohibido peaked at number 29 during its fifth week on the Billboard 200.[194] The event was "a rare feat" for a non-English album in the United States.[195] The album jumped from number 20 to number six on the list of the best-selling albums in Southern California in the week following her death.[196] The recording eventually ranked second on their list of the best-selling albums in the state.[197] In a June 1995 report, Amor Prohibido was the second best-selling record in Puerto Rico.[198] Amor Prohibido and her 1992 studio album Entre a Mi Mundo, rose 1,250% in sales in the eight weeks following her murder.[199] The album helped increase local record shops in Texas who were "selling more than when [Selena] was alive".[200] Amor Prohibido remained at number one on the Top Latin Albums chart for 16 weeks following her death until the release of her crossover album Dreaming of You replaced it on August 5.[201] The album remained behind Dreaming of You for seven weeks.[202] By the end of 1995, Amor Prohibido ranked second to Dreaming of You for the best-selling Latin album for that year,[203] and remained the best-selling regional Mexican recording for three consecutive years.[204]
After 98 weeks the album dropped from the top five on the Top Latin Albums chart,[205] though it remained within the top ten for 12 additional weeks.[206] Amor Prohibido holds the record for most weeks at number one on the Regional Mexican Albums chart at 97 weeks,[207][208] and is the only album to reach number one in four different calendar years.[Note 7] Amor Prohibido became the ninth best-selling Latin album of 1996,[204] and ranked as the second best-selling Latin catalog album of 1997,[211] while in 1998 it placed third.[212] Billboard's revised catalog criteria made it ineligible for the Top Latin Albums and Regional Mexican Albums chart on January 18, 1997. The album was removed from the list and began charting on the newly formed Latin Catalog Albums chart positioned at number two.[213] Since 1997, the album has spent 13 nonconsecutive weeks at number one on the Top Latin Catalog Albums chart including three weeks in 2010.[214] Following another revision to its Latin albums charts, Billboard removed its two-decade-long ban of catalog albums in its chart beginning with the February 11, 2017 list; Amor Prohibido re-entered the Top Latin Albums and Regional Mexican Albums chart after 20 years.[215][216][217] Still popular today, Nielsen SoundScan reported that Amor Prohibido was the ninth best-selling Latin record of 2016.[218] After its revision, Amor Prohibido reclaimed the number one position on the Regional Mexican Albums chart in May 2017.[210] Amor Prohibido was the first album by a woman to claim the top position since Jenni Rivera's Paloma Negra Desde Monterrey (2016).[219] Amor Prohibido became the last album by a woman to claim the top spot until Rivera's daughter Chiquis Rivera debuted atop the chart in March 2018.[220] As of 2018, the album has spent twenty weeks atop the Top Latin Albums chart, which is the ninth most weeks an album has spent at number one.[221] Amor Prohibido has spent 111 weeks within the top ten of the Top Latin Albums chart, which is the second most weeks behind American singer Romeo Santos' Formula, Vol. 2 (2014).[222]
In May 1995, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the album gold, for shipments of 500,000 units.[223] Within three weeks, it was certified platinum for increments of one million units.[224] Amor Prohibido became the first Tejano record to receive a platinum certification.[188] The Sydney Morning Herald called the event "an achievement" for a Spanish-language album which was not "the music industry's language of choice."[140] By June 1995, it had sold 1.5 million units in the US,[Note 8] of which 100,000 were sold in Puerto Rico alone.[198] In March 2011, the RIAA updated its certification of Amor Prohibido as double Diamond during an unveiling of the United States Postal Service's forever stamps honoring Selena and several other Hispanic/Latino Americans.[231] As of March 2024, the album has been certified 41× platinum (Latin), denoting 2.46 million album-equivalent units sold.[100] Amor Prohibido is the second-highest certified Latin album in the United States trailing only her posthumous album Dreaming of You (1995).[232] Amor Prohibido is the fourth best-selling Latin album of all-time in the US with over 1.246 million copies sold as of October 2017.[233] The album has sold over 2.5 million copies worldwide.[234] The recording has been ranked as the best-selling Tejano album of the 1990s,[130] and the best-selling Tejano album of all-time.[141][188][235]