Madison Taylor Baez stars as Young Selena on Netflix's Original Series 'Selena"
photo credit Alex Stone
Depicting young Selena Quintanilla in Netflix's own Selena: The Series is a 10-year old actress and singer + songwriter Madison Taylor Baez. Selena: The Series illustrates the Queen of Tejano Music's life from beginning to the devastating end and has Baez in the forefront, and Christian Serratos cast as Selena in her later years.
photo credit Alex Stone
When asked about her first memory regarding singing, Baez stated,
"I was 2 years old and I would sing and bang on my pink electronic piano. You couldn't understand a word I was singing but I was singing loud." She knew from that age on that singing was all she wanted to do, "I always had a microphone in my hand singing all the time. With the acting, I didn't really know I had the talent to be an actor until I started going on commercial auditions and booking them. It was then I fell in love with acting, booking twelve national commercials within three years."
Although Baez's parents had an admiration for music themselves, they did not embark on musical careers themselves but instead do everything to support the talents of their baby girl as her dad now acts as her manager. She toured around singing the national anthem earning herself the name “Anthem Girl.”
photo credit Alex Stone
Coincidentally, Baez was cast in Selena: The Series around the same time that Selena began performing with her family in their family band Selena Y Los Dinos. Young Baez is very akin to young Selena, however, the young prodigy wasn’t familiar with the Tejano star before auditioning.
“To be honest, I knew very little about Selena but my parents were fans of her and shared her music with me when I got invited to the audition. I instantly fell in love with her and her music and I realized how much our singing paths are alike.” To prepare for the role, Baez told us that she studied videos of Selena as a child performing to learn her movements as well as perfect her own singing in Spanish. Her parents also relayed Selena’s music to her, and she also watched the 1997 movie Selena starring Jennifer Lopez.
“The audition consisted of three auditions,” the actress shared, “Two for casting and the final one for producers. For all 3, I performed two scenes and two songs in Spanish and English. I had never sung in Spanish before but I prepared and practiced Spanish prior to my auditions. I also studied videos of Selena when she was young on YouTube to learn her movements. I felt I had done really well after each audition.”
photo credit Alex Stone
And that she did as she was awarded the role of young Selena Quintanilla where she made her official television debut. Each and every performance was special to the young songstress noting that “Funkytown” and “Fools Fall In Love” were some of her favorite performances to film, while “Feelings” was the most difficult due to the scenes emotional value.
Selena will be an influential figure to Baez as she releases her own music she says. “I will definitely release some pop songs and Spanish songs like Selena with a style all my own. I definitely look up to Selena. She is one of my idols. I want to be able to have that same connection with my fans and her fans as she did. Selena never took herself seriously and loving her fans was just as important if not more to her than the music.”
When she is not working, Baez is just a normal 10-year old. She enjoys skateboarding, playing video games, cooking, painting, and spending time with friends and family. She has two dogs named Jax and Oreo. Baez also works with charity organizations Children Uniting Nations and Ataxia Walk For A Cure.
Selena: The Series Season Two premieres May 4th, 2021.
photo credit Alex Stone
Meet the Author
Brianna Vacca is a Philadelphia-based writer. She has an unhealthy addiction to true crime documentaries, celebrity gossip, and writes overly dramatic sad songs.