Selena Quintanilla-Pérez

Singer. Born Selena Quintanilla on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson, Texas. Selena was considered the "Queen of Tejano," a type of Mexican music that incorporated other styles, such as country. She was also sometimes referred to as the "Mexican Madonna" for her sexy outfits and dance moves. Selena began performing as a child. Around the age of ten, she was the lead singer in her family's band, Selena Y Los Dinos. The musical group started out playing weddings and clubs in their native Texas. The band featured her brother Abraham on bass guitar and her sister Suzette on the drums. Her father Abraham, a former musician, managed and produced the group. Selena sang in Spanish, learning the lyrics phonetically since she understood the language, but did not speak it at first. She went on to Spanish and later was a fluent speaker.

Selena became very popular with Tejano music fans and won Best Female Vocalist of the Year and Performer of the Year at the 1987 Tejano Music Awards. Her album Ven Conmigo (1990) was the first Tejano record to achieve gold record status, meaning it sold more than 500,000 copies. In 1992, Selena took enough of a break from her hectic schedule to marry Chris Perez, the band's lead guitarist in April.

Her recordings continued to have strong sales, and she won the Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Album in 1993 for her album Live. In 1994, she and the band played numerous tour dates in New York, California, Puerto Rico, and Argentina. Amor Prohibido was released that same year and went gold.

Selena went to work on an English-language album that she hoped would put her on the top of the U.S. pop music charts. Unfortunately, she did not live to see its success. Selena died on March 31, 1995, in Corpus Christi, Texas, after being shot by Yolanda Saldivar, the founder of the Selena fan club. Saldivar had been managing Selena's boutique in San Antonio and was about to be fired for embezzling money. Selena's murder sent shockwaves through the Latino community and her fans around the world mourned the singer's passing.

Selena's first English-language album, Dreaming of You, was released after her death and became a huge hit. Her music remains popular today. Since her untimely death, Selena's life story has been the subject of a 1997 film starring Jennifer Lopez as the Tejano superstar and James Edward Olmos as her father.