Penas translates to 'sorrows' or 'worries'. It's a more poetic and emotional word for troubles than the more common problemas.
In this uplifting song, Selena sings the powerful line, "Tira tus penas al aire," which literally means "Throw your sorrows to the wind!" This beautiful phrase captures the song's core message of letting go of negativity and embracing a life full of music and joy.
Need a break from everyday chaos? Selena offers the ultimate escape in this upbeat Tejano track. From the first verse, she makes her goal crystal clear: she is done dealing with heavy drama. She sings, "No quiero saber de más problemas ya" [I don't want to hear about more problems anymore] and even rules out hearing about serious headlines with "No quiero saber de una guerra mundial" [I don't want to hear about a world war]. Instead, she builds an imaginary safe haven packed with music, harmony, and non-stop celebration for anyone who feels young at heart.
The song acts as an open invitation to drop your worries and dance. Selena tells you to cheer up with "Tira tus penas al aire" [Throw your sorrows into the air], which is a wonderful Spanish idiom for letting go of whatever is dragging you down so you can simply enjoy the moment. Her recipe for a better future is simple: love one another and live without holding back. When she belts out "Vive cada día sin poner medida" [Live every day without setting limits] and "Vive hasta lo máximo" [Live to the max], it is pure, contagiously positive energy that makes tomorrow feel like something genuinely worth looking forward to.
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.