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Selena Quintanilla Pérez (April 16, 1971 – March 31, 1995), best known as Selena, was a Mexican-American singer who has been called the "queen" of Tejano music. 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 nineties, 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 the United States and Mexico 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. 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.

Early career

Born in Lake Jackson, Texas, to the Mexican-American father Abraham Quintanilla and a Panamanian mother Marcella Ophelia Zamora. She began singing at the age of six; when she was nine her father founded the singing group Selena y Los Dinos, which she fronted. They initially performed at the Quintanilla family's restaurant, "Papagallos," but the restaurant failed shortly afterwards.

The family soon went bankrupt and was evicted from their home. Taking all their musical equipment in an old bus, they relocated to Corpus Christi in Southern Texas. There, they performed wherever they could: at street corners, weddings, quinceañeras, and fairs. These efforts at spreading their name paid off in 1984, when Selena, then twelve years old, recorded her first album for a local record company. The album was not sold in stores, and her father bought all the original copies. It was later released in 1995 under the title Mis Primeras Grabaciones.

Selena did well in school, but as she grew more popular, the travel demands of her performance schedule began to interfere with her education. Her father pulled her out of school altogether when she was in eighth grade. She continued her education on the road; at age seventeen she earned a high school diploma from The American School of Correspondence in Chicago and was accepted at LSU. Selena released her second album, Alpha, in 1986.

She Never had Sex

Death

In early 1995, the Quintanillas discovered that Yolanda Saldívar, the president of Selena's fanclub and the manager of her boutiques, was stealing money from the boutiques and decided to fire her. Soon after the fallout, Selena agreed to meet Saldívar in a Days Inn hotel in Corpus Christi, Texas, on the morning of March 31, 1995 in order to retrieve paperwork for tax purposes. At the motel, Selena demanded the missing financial papers. Saldívar delayed the handover by claiming she had been raped in Mexico. The singer drove Saldívar to a local hospital, where doctors found no evidence of rape. Saldivar returned to the motel where Selena again demanded the missing financial papers.

An argument ensued and Saldívar drew a gun from her purse, pointing it first at her own head and then at Selena. As the singer turned and left the room, Saldívar shot her once in the back. Selena fled to the manager's office in the lobby for help, with Saldivar chasing her, calling her a bitch. Before collapsing to the floor, Selena named Saldívar as her assailant and gave the number of the hotel room where she was shot. An ambulance and the police arrived on scene and Selena was transported to a local hospital. She died there from loss of blood at 1:05 P.M., at the age of 23, sixteen days shy of her 24th birthday. The gun used to kill Selena was later destroyed and the pieces thrown into Corpus Christi Bay.

Aftermath

Template:Sound sample box align right Template:Multi-listen start Template:Multi-listen item Template:Multi-listen end Template:Sample box end Selena's death shocked and saddened Latinos and non-Latinos alike across the United States and abroad. Major networks interrupted their regular programming to break the news; Tom Brokaw referred to Selena as "The Mexican Madonna". Numerous vigils and memorials were held in her honor and radio stations in Texas played her music non-stop. Her funeral drew approximately 60,000 mourners, many of whom traveled from outside the United States. Among the celebrities who were reported to have immediately phoned the Quintanilla family to express their condolences were Gloria Estefan, Julio Iglesias and Madonna. The magazine People published a commemorative issue in honor of Selena's memory and musicial career, titled Selena 1971-1995, Her Life in Pictures. A few days afterwards, Howard Stern, mocked Selena's murder and burial, poked fun at her mourners, and criticized her music. Stern said, "This music does absolutely nothing for me. Alvin and the Chipmunks have more soul, Spanish people have the worst taste in music. They have no depth." Stern's comments outraged the Hispanic community all across Texas. Two weeks after her death, on April 12, 1995, George W. Bush, the then Governor of Texas, declared April 16, Selena's birthday, "Selena Day," in Texas.

That summer, Selena's album Dreaming of You, a combination of Spanish language songs and several new English language tracks, debuted at number one on the Billboard music charts in the US, making her the first Hispanic singer to accomplish this feat and the second highest debut after Michael Jackson's HIStory. On its release date, the album sold over 175,000 copies, a record for a female pop singer, and sold two million copies in its first year. Songs such as "I Could Fall In Love" and "Dreaming Of You" were played widely by mainstream English language radio with the latter reaching #25 on the Billboard Hot 100. Meanwhile, "I Could Fall In Love," while ineligible for the Hot 100 at the time, did reach #12 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart and the top 10 on the Adult Contemporary Chart. "Dreaming of You" has sold approximately five million copies in the USA.

In October 1995 a Houston jury convicted Saldívar of first-degree murder and sentenced her to life in prison, with the possibility of parole in thirty years.

Legacy

In 1997, Jennifer Lopez played Selena in a film about her life, called Selena. Directed by Gregory Nava, the biopic opened with mostly positive reviews. More than 12,000 people auditioned for a role in the film. The film stirred some controversy in the Mexican-American community, since Lopez is Puerto Rican and played the role of a singer of Mexican descent. But Selena's fans supported the movie, and Lopez's role in the film helped elevate her career. Although Lopez would succeed as a pop star herself a few years later, Selena's voice was dubbed in for all the songs in the movie. For her role in the film, Lopez was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Musical.

Reliant Stadium in Houston hosted a tribute concert, "Selena ¡VIVE!", on April 7, 2005. Held a week after the 10th anniversary of her death, more than 50,000 fans attended the concert, which featured various high-profile artists including Gloria Estefan, Pepe Aguilar, Thalía, Paulina Rubio, Ana Barbara, Alejandra Guzmán, Ana Gabriel, and Fey. All of the artists at the event performed renditions of Selena's music, as did her brother, A.B. Quintanilla, who performed along with his band Kumbia Kings backed with footage of Selena singing Baila Esta Cumbia. Broadcast live on the Univision network, "Selena ¡VIVE!" now holds the record for the highest-rated and most-viewed Spanish-language show in American television history. The show, which was over three hours long, scored a 35.9 Nielsen household rating.

Selected discography

Early releases

EMI Music releases

Posthumous releases

References

1. ^ Mitchell, Rick. "Selena". Houston Chronicle, 21 May 1995. Retrieved on 14 May 2006.
2. ^ Orozco, Cynthia E. Quintanilla Perez, Selena. The Handbook of Texas online. Retrieved on 5 June 2006
3. HSA Banquet Features Father of Late Tejano Star Selena, Baylor University press release, November 4, 1999. Retrieved October 13, 2006.
4. Ancestry.com. Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997 . Provo, UT, USA: MyFamily.com, Inc., 2005. Original data: Texas. Texas Birth Index, 1903-1997. Texas: Texas Department of State Health Services. Microfiche. Retrieved October 13, 2006.
5. ^ Selena. Thompson Gale (Gale.com). Retrieved on 6 June 2006.
6. "October 12 1995 testimony of Carla Anthony in the Selena trial". Houston Chronicle, October 12 1995. Retrieved on 5 June 2006.
7. "October 12 1995, the testimony of Norma Martinez in the Selena trial". Houston Chronicle, October 12 1995. Retrieved on 5 June 2006.
8. "Friday, October 13, testimony of Shawna Vela in the Selena trial". Houston Chronicle, October 13 1995. Retrieved on 5 June 2006.
9. Villafranca, Armando and Reinert, Patty. "Singer Selena shot to death". Houston Chronicle, April 1 1995. Retrieved on 18 May 2006.
10. National Briefing Southwest: Texas: Gun That Killed Singer Is To Be Destroyed New York Times, June 8 2002. Retrieved on 16 July 2006.
11. Weapon Used to Kill Selena Destroyed The Daily Texan, June 11 2002. Retrieved on 7 September 2006.
12. "In the spirit of Selena: Tributes, a book and an impending film testify to the Tejano singer's enduring". by Gregory Rodriguez Pacific News, March 21 1997. Retrieved on 18 July 2006.
13. Asin, Stephanie and Dyer, R.A. "Selena's public outraged: Shock jock Howard Stern's comments hit raw nerve." Houston Chronicle, April 6 1995. Retrieved on 20 May 2006.
14. Hodges, Ann. "Selena legend lives on with TV movie'. Houston Chronicle, December 6 1996. Retrieved on 20 May 2006.
15. "In the spirit of Selena: Tributes, a book and an impending film testify to the Tejano singer's enduring". Houston Chronicle, March 31 1996. Retrieved on 20 May 2006.
16. Graczyk, Michael. "Selena's killer gets life". Associated Press, October 26 1995. Retrieved on 20 May 2006.
17. Rotten Tomatoes reviews of Selena". Rotten Tomatoes, Retrieved on 20 July 2006.
18. "Scholar examines the spell of Selena". Houston Chronicle, April 28 1996. Retrieved on 5 June 2006.
19. "Gale profile". Thompson Gale (Gale.com). Retrieved on 20 July 2006.
20. Selena movie review. Roger Ebert, Retrieved on 20 July 2006.
21. Awards for Selena (1997). IMDb.com. Retrieved on 17 May 2006.
22. Univision’s Selena ¡Vive! Breaks Audience Records. Univision, 4 November 2005. Retrieved on 6 June 2006.

External links

• Q Productions - Official Web Site
• Find-A-Grave profile for Selena Quintanilla-Perez

• 1971 births
• 1995 deaths
• American female singers
• American murder victims
• Deaths by firearm
• Grammy Award winners
• Mexican American singers
• Mestizos
• Mexican Americans
• Murdered entertainers
• People from Houston
• Rhythmic Top 40 acts
• Selena