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‘Bidi Bidi Bom Bom’ is one of the most emblematic musical themes of Selena Quintanilla, The Queen of Tex Mex, who became an icon of Latin music. Selena was a huge commercial success that generated sales of over 70 million records worldwide, was named the only female artist to have had five albums at the same time ranked on the Billboard chart.
MORE INFORMATION: What happened to Suzette Quintanilla, Selena’s older sister
At 23 years old Selena was at the pinnacle of success, with a promising music career and a clothing line called Selena Etc. He was selling millions of copies of his five albums and was about to release one more when his voice was muted. Yolanda Saldívar, the founder and president of the artist’s fan club, shot and killed her. The tragedy shocked the whole world.
Although 25 years have passed since his death, Selena Quintanilla it is still in force and its music has crossed the barriers of time and has penetrated several generations. One of his most popular songs is “Bidi Bidi Bom Bom”, Which appears on the disc Forbidden love, Released in July 1994.
The catchy track peaked at number 1 on Billboard’s Hot Lating Songs chart in October 1994, six months before his unexpected death at the age of 23. “Bid bidi good good” it is so popular that it is still danced and sung at parties and tributes to the artist. But, do you know how the name of this musical hit came about? Here we tell you.
The first version of “Bidi bidi well well” it was in English and arose spontaneously during the sound tests of Selena and her group Tell us in the early 1990s.
MORE INFORMATION: Selena Quintanilla: What happened to AB Quintanilla, the singer’s older brother
Musician Pete Astudillo, who sang in Selena as part of the band at the time, revealed that during a rehearsal the singer began improvising with her brother and bassist AB Quintanilla and her husband and guitarist Chris Perez, vocalizing meaningless phrases like “Itty Bitty bubbles”, which means “bubbles” in Spanish.
The melody hit so hard that Selena and The Tell Us continued to play in rehearsals and sound tests. In a 1993 Youtube video, Selena is seen improvising even more on the musical phrase, singing “If I had one wish, I would like to be a fish and I’d swim, I’d swim under the sea so free “, translated into Spanish means” if I had a desire, I would swim in the sea, I would be so free “.
AB Quintanilla asked Astudillo to write a new lyrics, and in Spanish, to go with the catchy melody of cumbia and reggae tints. In the new version, the theme changed from the sea and bubbles to the sound that makes a throbbing heart in love.
