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Selena Quintanilla-Pérez (April 16, 1971 ? March 31, 1995), best known as Selena, was a Mexican-American singer of Tejano music whose skyrocketing career ended abruptly. Her untimely death launched her to legendary status in the United States and Mexico. She is considered to be one of the most popular and influential Latino musicians.
Selena has been called “the queen of Tejano music”.[2] The youngest child of a Mexican-American couple, Selena released her first album at the age of twelve. She took the award for Female Vocalist of the Year in 1987 at the Tejano Music Awards and landed a recording contract with EMI a few years later. Her fame continued to grow throughout the early 1990s, especially in Spanish-speaking countries. Her album Selena Live! won a Grammy Award for Best Mexican-American Album at the 36th Grammy Awards, and her 1994 album Amor Prohibido was nominated for another Grammy and produced four number one Spanish hits.
Selena attained further notability in North America after Yolanda Saldívar, the president of her fan club, murdered her at the age of 23. On April 12, 1995, two weeks after her death, George W. Bush, then the governor of Texas, declared her birthday “Selena Day” in Texas.[3] Warner Brothers made a film based on her life starring Jennifer Lopez in 1997. As of June 2006, Selena was commemorated with a museum and a bronze life-sized statue (Mirador de la Flor in Corpus Christi, Texas). Both the statue and museum are visited by hundreds of fans each week. |
