Renunciar means 'to renounce' or 'to give up'. It's a powerful verb that implies a formal and definitive rejection, much stronger than simply 'to deny'.
In this heartbreaking ballad, Selena sings, "Y aunque siempre lo renuncies..." (And although you always renounce it...). She uses this word to describe how her former lover completely disowns the love they shared, while she continues to see it as the most beautiful thing in her life. This dramatic word perfectly captures the pain of having your deepest feelings invalidated.
Few singers handle unreturned love with as much class as Selena does here. In this Tejano classic, she faces the hard truth that the person she loves is gone for good. The title phrase sets the stage: "No me queda más" ("I have nothing left" or literally "Nothing more remains for me"). Instead of throwing a tantrum or seeking revenge, she accepts her loss with surprising grace. She sings that all she can do is "aguantar bien mi derrota y brindarte felicidad" ("take my defeat well and wish you happiness"). The verb aguantar means to endure or bear a heavy burden, showing that stepping aside takes real strength.
What makes this track hit so hard is the contrast between their views of the past. Her ex denies their history, but Selena refuses to rewrite the past to save face. Even though he claims nothing ever happened, she boldly calls their time together "el más dulce recuerdo de mi vida" ("the sweetest memory of my life"). She openly admits she was "totalmente equivocada" ("completely mistaken" to think he would stay, yet she holds no regrets. It hurts to look at someone as "sólo amigo" ("just a friend"), but for her, what she felt was real: "lo más lindo, el más grande amor" ("the prettiest thing, the greatest love").
Selena Quintanilla-Pérez grew up in Lake Jackson, Texas, fronting her family's band, Selena y Los Dinos, with her brother A.B. writing the songs and playing bass and her sister Suzette on drums. She was raised speaking English, and her father drilled the Spanish lyrics into her phonetically, line by line, years before she was fluent in the language she sold millions of records in.
Tejano was a men's business when she took it over: she won the Tejano Music Award for Female Vocalist of the Year nine years running from 1987, and Selena Live! took the 1994 Grammy for Best Mexican-American Album. "Como la Flor", from 1992's Entre a Mi Mundo, is the song attached to her name more than any other, and Amor Prohibido (1994) put four singles at number one on Billboard's Hot Latin Songs chart, among them "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom" and "No Me Queda Más". She was shot and killed in Corpus Christi on March 31, 1995, aged 23, by the former president of her fan club. Dreaming of You, the English-language crossover album she had been recording, was released that August and entered the Billboard 200 at number one.