The Anything For Selena podcast released earlier this year is a story of how Selena helped shape pop culture and American identity. The 10-episode podcast had over half a million downloads and was an intimate journey about belonging in America for podcast host and creator Maria Garcia, a journalist and first-generation Mexican immigrant. The podcast received a nomination for Best Spanish Language Podcast at the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards announced on Wednesday (Oct. 13).
The Anything For Selena podcast, produced by WBUR and Futuro Studios, received great reviews from The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and Vulture. Garcia goes on an intimate, revelatory quest to understand how the Mexican American music icon went from a working-class girl, who began singing to put food on the table to a Grammy-winning, chart-topping artist on the verge of mainstream stardom before her tragic murder in 1995.
“The podcast is a culmination of this sort of lifelong quest to understand why Selena was so resonant for me and why a quarter-century later she remains so potent in the culture,” Garcia tells Tejano Nation. “What I really wanted to do is do a truly deep analysis that combined my love for vigorous journalism, for incisive culture analysis, and a very human, very vulnerable, very personal storytelling, to paint a picture of just how much Selena has impacted and changed culture of the last quarter-century.”
In each episode, Garcia unpacks an aspect of how Selena’s image and legacy have taken on new meaning 25 years after her death. The series also weaves Garcia’s personal story as a queer, first-generation Mexican immigrant with cultural analysis, history, and politics to explore how Selena remains an unparalleled vessel for understanding Latino identity and American belonging.
RELATED: ‘Anything For Selena’ podcast to interview Chris Perez for bonus episode
The Awards ceremony will take place on January 13, 2022, at the iHeartRadio Theater Los Angeles and will honor the very best in podcasting throughout 2021, celebrating the most innovative talent and content creators in the industry. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the podcast industry saw a record number of podcasts being created and listened to, continuing to push the industry forward with more than 160 million people have listened to a podcast this year alone.
“We are excited to be back live for year four of the iHeartRadio Podcast Awards to recognize all the amazing content and talent that the podcasting medium has produced this past year,” said Conal Byrne, CEO of iHeartMedia’s Digital Audio Group. “Podcast listening has continued to soar across the U.S., seeing a nearly 60% increase in monthly listeners since our first awards show was announced in 2018, filling this industry with more diversity and innovation than ever before. We look forward to honoring these major advancements in-person during the 2022 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards this January.”
See the full list of nominees for the 2022 iHeartRadio Podcast Awards here.
The 10-episode Anything For Selena podcast is available at your favorite podcast platform,
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