Performing Culture and Problematizing Identity through “Anything for Selena”

Abstract

ABSTRACT Podcasts cover a wide range of topics and genres that can be created and developed for diverse and niche audiences. Using an inductive approach, we explore the connections and insights the podcast Anything for Selena offers about parasociality, celebrity grieving, and diasporic Latina/o/x identity, in the context of Selena as a brand. Themes follow acts of performing culture, posthumous branding, aspirational identity, and parasocial grieving across traditional and new digital media. A focus on multilingual and multicultural Latina/o/x identity revealed narrative nuances specific to the target audience. Selena’s crossover appeal, augmented by engaged niche groups in podcast communities, remains relevant for the 2020s and beyond.