After 10 years, Bidi Bidi Banda says Adios

Parts of this interview originally aired on the “Austin Cultura” radio show, a partnership between Austin Vida and KUT 90.5 FM. You can listen to the show during the first Friday of the month or catch it online here. Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

For the past 10 years, Austinite Stephanie Bergara kept the legacy of Tejano music star Selena Quintanilla alive through her tribute band Bidi Bidi Banda. The group toured across the country, infusing joy to all who love Selena’s music. The Austin Music Award winning-band has been part of local festivals and big stages inspiring a new generation of fans. 

Bergara announced the band’s retirement last fall and will be closing out their 2024 farewell tour with performances at the Mohawk in Austin on Sat. Dec. 21 and at San Antonio’s Paper Tiger on Sun. Dec. 22. Their contributions over the years have earned them an official proclamation. Mayor Kirk Watson and the City of Austin will proclaim Dec. 21 Stephanie Bergara and Bidi Bidi Banda Day. 

For Selena’s birthday anniversary this year, we caught up with Bergara about her musical journey and what lies ahead. 

AUSTIN VIDA: How did your love for Selena begin? 

BERGARA: Oh my gosh. Like any 8-year-old girl from Texas growing up in the 90s, I saw Selena on television. I realized she was one of the first people I’d ever seen on television who looked like she could be related to me. And then she passed away, and it was one of the first times I’d experienced grief in my life. And it was really, really hard. I was just a girl from Texas who loved Selena. 

AUSTIN VIDA: What was the inspiration behind you launching your own Selena tribute band? 

BERGARA: That is a funny story. So I was playing in another band, with a couple of friends of mine. We were playing music together, and I realized the only people who were coming to see me play these shows were my mom and dad. I felt inclined to start doing something that would draw more attention to me and to my voice. And I remember sitting at my full-time job, typing away and going, well, everybody knows Selena, we should do a Selena tribute.

And this was during the heyday of the Pachanga Latino Music Festival, which was based here in Austin, for many years. And I remember looking up and I was like, I should do a Selena tribute. And the next thing I know, we’re playing a sold-out room at Empire Control Room, doing six Selena songs from scratch, which any musician will tell you is very, very hard. There are no charts, there’s no point of reference. You got to make it up all in your head as you go or just play it back. 

AUSTIN VIDA: After hundreds of shows, what’s been the most rewarding part of bringing Selena’s music to the stage, but making it your own with Bidi Bidi Banda? 

BERGARA: The most rewarding moment is when we start a song and you see in someone’s eyes that this is their favorite Selena song and they’re hearing it live for the first time. And that’s just kind of like a very granular thing to see. 

In addition to that, one other piece that’s rewarding to me is that at first I was hand sewing Selena costumes. I’m not a Selena-looking woman. I am who I am. 

So I’d go on stage with the black hair spray and the long eyelashes and the red lipstick and this hand-sewn bustier. About a year and a half into doing the band, I decided we weren’t going to do that anymore. Sometimes we were playing at a church festival at 4:30 p.m. and it was too hot outside. I was like, I can’t do this today. 

I started to feel myself pulling away from the thing I cared about most, which was making the music really good. So, I stopped doing that. I put on a dress and pulled my hair back and curled my hair and put on my regular makeup. And the rest is history. 

I think that defined us as a band – you’re coming to see a Selena tribute show, but when you get there, it’s Stephanie and the band putting on a show. The music just happens to be Selena. And it helped me to establish my individuality, and helped me to establish who I would be after this. 

AUSTIN VIDA: What can you tell us about your next chapter and performing as Stephanie Bergara now?

We are doing what we’re calling ‘George Strait retiring,’ which means that if something big comes up, we certainly will consider it. But it’s got to make sense for us. It’s got to be a very special thing. 

I was fortunate to be an official South by Southwest performer as me this year. So I did my debut solo showcase at The Grackle. And that was wonderful. 

But I want to make some more space to write. And all this interesting confluence of like country and Latino music is so cool. I like everything that I’m writing, like in the back of a van, or on my phone, it’s all kind of coming out like that. And I think that’s kind of a direction we’re going to go.