Selena Y Los Dinos is Netflix’s upcoming documentary on the legacy of the Tejano star, but it’s also the band — fronted by the icon Selena — that revolutionized Latin music and one of the first global acts. At Latin Music Week 2025, fans and conference attendees not only got to see exclusive clips from the film, slated to premiere Nov. 17, but heard directly from Suzette Quintanilla and the documentary’s director Isabel Castro.
Moderated by Billboard‘s Jessica Roiz, the Selena Y Los Dinos panel on Wednesday (Oct. 22) broke down the significance of this new documentary, the band’s legacy and the family values that fueled the global act.
The new Netflix documentary first premiered in the Sundance Film Festival, capturing Selena Y Los Dinos’ rise to stardom. Throughout Selena’s music career, seven of her studio albums hit No. 1 on Top Latin Albums, including Amor Prohibido (1994), which reigned for 20 weeks, and Dreaming of You (released posthumously in 1995), which topped the chart for 44 weeks. The latter set also made history as the first bilingual album to debut at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200. In 1993, Selena won a Grammy for the best Mexican American album for Selena Live!, becoming the first female Tejano artist to win that award.
Below, five takeaways from the Selena Y Los Dinos panel at Latin Music Week:
Approaching Isabel Castro for the Project
Suzette Quintanilla: “Four or five years ago, I wanted to create this documentary to tell our family story, directly from our family to the world, and find somebody that could do this. I did a Zoom with Isabel and I instantly knew she was going to be the person to be able to tell the story for us. She’s an amazing person, she’s Latina and I’m glad she’s leading this for us.”
Why Castro Said Yes to Directing
Isabel Castro: “I’m Mexican, I came to the U.S. and to me, Selena was really the person that taught me to be proud about having a bicultural community. I found solace in her and the family’s music. It made me understand myself. When they reached out I was like, ‘Everyone stop everything, hold the phones.’ It was obvious this was important to me. It’s been an honor of a lifetime.”
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The Process
Castro: “The family has a vault and when I opened that door and the light came through. It’s like a medium-sized storage unit, packed from floor to ceiling of bookcases with thousands of VHS tapes, flash drives. The beginning of that process was interesting because we were so honored but it felt like a huge sense of responsibility. We reviewed it all and once we digitized it, then came the editing process and it was important that the archive told the story. All of the footage is valuable, but the material that moved me the most was the material that was shot behind the scenes that was mostly shot by Suzette. What’s in the film is as much as we could include.”
How This Will Be Different From Other Selena Films
Castro: “We had conversations about this, both I and Suzette, and the family wanted this to feel like the most authentic version of [the family’s] story and wanted it to be told by the them. We also wanted it to be told through the archive.”
Quintanilla: “The [1997] movie was sprinkled with Hollywood glitter, but this documentary is the opposite of that. This is our family, Chris, my mom, my father, A.B., myself, bandmates, telling the world our story: We started from that and created this. A lot of people want to separate Selena from our band, but other elements that made her were our band and family.”
What Fans Will Take Away From Selena Y Los Dinos
Quintanilla: “I want them to feel the energy and what we were all about. People have a perception, and they’re entitled to their opinion, and how my father was. We are a normal family that started a band and became global. Selena is not here, but we are celebrating what we did and created so many years ago. And this documentary reflects the power of who we are as Latinos, this is a global launch in 190 countries and 32 plus languages. I’m very proud of that.”
Spanning more than 30 years, Latin Music Week is the single-most important and largest gathering of Latin artists and industry executives in the world. This year’s event once again hosts panels, marquee conversations, roundtables, networking and activations, in addition to its celebrated Billboard En Vivo showcases.
This year’s star-studded lineup includes Aitana, Alofoke, Anuel AA, Bebeshito, Carlos Vives, Carín León, Danny Ocean, DJ Khaled, Daddy Yankee (DY), Emilia Mernes, Ivy Queen, Gloria Estefan, Grupo 5, Kapo, Laura Pausini, Luck Ra, Netón Vega, Olga Tañón, Óscar Maydon, Ozuna, Pablo Alborán, Rawayana, Suzette Quintanilla, Tokischa, Xavi and Yailin La Más Viral, to name a few.
Latin Music Week also coincides with the 2025 Billboard Latin Music Awards, set to air Thursday, Oct. 23, on Telemundo and Peacock, where Bad Bunny will be honored as Top Latin Artist of the 21st Century.
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