Selena Quintanilla Pérez (April 16, 1971 in Lake Jackson

Selena Quintanilla Pérez (April 16, 1971 in Lake Jackson, Texas-March 31, 1995 in Corpus Christi, Texas) was an American singer of Mexican descent, performer of tex-mex music, ranchera, ballad, Latin pop and cumbia Mexican, as well as businesswoman, model, dancer, actress and fashion designer. Known simply as Selena, was regarded as a great exponent of Latin music with sales of over 70 million albums worldwide,12 which makes it one of the latinas with more discs sold only after Gloria Estefan and

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Shakira, who have been sold respectively around 90 and 100 million copies worldwide.345 is also known as" the Queen of tex-mex"," queen of cumbia "and"the Queen of Latin music".6 was named" the most influential and best-selling Latin Artist of the 1990s " by Billboard magazine, as well as being the only female artist to have had five albums at the same time ranked on the Billboard 200.7 list in addition in 2020 she was declared by the same magazine as "the greatest Latin female artist of all time". In 2016 and 2020 his posthumous collaboration with MAC Cosmetics became the best-selling collection in the history of cosmetics.8​

He began his musical career at the age of ten alongside his brothers Suzette and Abraham Quintanilla III, and recorded his first album at the age of fourteen. In the 1980s, she was criticized and rejected several times for performing Texas music, a male-only genre. Her popularity grew after she won the Tejano Music Awards for Best Female Vocalist in 1987. He then signed a contract with EMI a few years later. His fame continued to grow in the early 1990s, especially in Hispanic countries. Selena released Entre a mi mundo in 1992 which reached number one on the Mexican regional Billboard top, for eight consecutive months. One of his singles, "Como la flor" became his flagship song. His album Live! in 1993, she won a Grammy for Best Mexican-American Music Album,

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becoming the first Texan-style artist to win one. In 1994, Selena released Amor prohibido, which later became one of the best-selling Latin Albums in the United States and was ranked 19th in the top 150 albums made by women.9 after the success of that album, Selena began recording songs in English. Wife of guitarist Chris Pérez, they married on April 2, 1992 after their father flatly denied them having a relationship.

Selena was murdered on March 31, 1995 at the age of 23 by Yolanda Saldívar, the president of her fan club and in charge of the administration of her boutiques Selena Etc. her life was taken to the cinema in 1997 under the title of Selena, starring Jennifer Lopez, who gives life to the character of the singer. That same year, on May 25 in Corpus Christi, the Mirador de la flor was inaugurated, where a bronze statue is located in his honor. Among his biggest hits are "Like the flower", "La carcacha", "forbidden Love", "The boy in apartment 512", "No me queda más", "Bidi bidi bom bom", "Pictures and memories", "If once", "Techno cumbia", "Dance this Cumbia", "I Could Fall in Love", "You only you", "Dreaming of You" and "Always cold", which became popular in many parts of the world, especially the united States and Latin America. In 1998 a museum was opened in his memory.10The Museum and the statue are visited every week by hundreds of followers. By 2015 it has sold more than 75 million albums of the artist.11​12​

Many media called her the Mexican Madonna.1314 is listed as one of the most influential Latin artists of all time and is also credited for catapulting Latin music to the international market.15​16​

Biography and career
1971-1988: childhood and early career
Selena Quintanilla Pérez was born on Friday, April 16, 1971 in Lake Jackson, Texas.1718 of Mexican and Cherokee descent,19 was the youngest daughter of the marriage between Abraham Quintanilla Jr. and Marcella Ofelia Zamora.2021 his parents emigrated from Mexico to the United States in the 1950s.22 his father kept the family working as a laborer in surrounding cities.

The Quintanilla family left the Catholic religion and became Jehovah's witnesses, so Selena was raised in the early days of this religion,23 even Selena's mother came to preach door-to-door to other Hispanic families in the United States.24 later the family became inactive in the creed, but they maintained the fundamental beliefs of that religion.25​

Selena's beginning as a singer was at the age of nine, when her father saw in her talent for singing. So he formed a band with his brothers, with Selena as the vocalist, A. B Quintanilla on bass and Suzette Quintanilla on drums.262726 in the beginning, when the band was formed they were called "the Dinos with Selena" but as time passed it became "Selena and the Dinos". The name "Los Dinos" came from a band in which his father sang when he was young. They began singing at their father's Mexican food restaurant "Papa Gayo's" opened in 1980 in Lake Jackson.2829 the business did not prosper and the following year the restaurant suffered a forced closure caused by the fall in oil prices in the 1980s. The family filed for bankruptcy, abandoned their house2630 and moved to Corpus Christi, Texas. Abraham Quintanilla became the manager of the newly formed band "Selena y los Dinos" and began to promote them,263132 they played in the corners, at weddings, in quinceañeras, and at fairs.26​33​34​

Selena went to school like any girl, but her rise as a musical artist and demand for performances began to interfere with her education. This caused her father to take her out of school when she was in eighth grade.35 her teacher Marilyn Greer disapproved of the musical career of Selena, 36 and tried to denounce Abraham Quintanilla to the Texas Education Agency, claiming that the conditions to which Selena was exposed were not according to her age. Other teachers also expressed concern when they realized how tired Selena was when she arrived at school.36 at seventeen Selena finished high school and earned a diploma from the American School of Correspondence in Chicago.37 she was also accepted to Louisiana State University, 38 but enrolled at Miramar University California, taking the business administration career.28​

Abraham Quintanilla repaired an old bus, which he named Big Bertha, this bus was used to transport the full band during Selena's tours.39 in the first years of touring, the family sang for food and they could hardly afford gasoline.39 in 1984, Selena recorded her first LP, Selena and the Dinos, on Freddie Records.40 despite wanting to sing only in English, Selena recorded songs of the Tex-Mex genre in Spanish, it was dominated only by men.41 Quintanilla believed that Selena could record this type of music because of her musical heritage.42 during rehearsals for her album, Selena learned Spanish phonetically with the help of her father.43 in 1985, to promote her music, Selena performed on the Johnny Canales Show, a popular Spanish-language radio show in Texas. Selena was discovered by Rick Treviño, founder of the Tejano Music Awards, where she won the Female Vocalist of the Year award nine consecutive times.44 the band was often rejected by the ages of the members and also because Selena was the lead singer.45 in 1988, Selena released another 5 LPs; Alpha (1986), Rag Doll (1987), and the Winner is... (1987), Preciosa (1988), and Dulce Amor (1988).46​

In 1987 at the Tejano Music Awards, her album Alpha won the revelation of the Year award and she won the award for Best Female Vocalist.27​35​47​

1989-1991: Selena, come with me, and relationship with Perez

Chris Perez (pictured in 2012) and Selena began a relationship, despite the fact that her father disapproved of her.
In 1989 the newly founded Latin label EMI and its president, José Behar, hired Selena after seeing her in one of their performances.352729 Behar along with the new head of Sony Music Latin, saw Selena's presentation at the 1989 Tejano Music Awards.48 Behar was looking for Latin talent and wanted Selena to join EMI, meanwhile, Sony Music Latin offered Abraham Quintanilla twice what EMI had offered.48 Behar believed he had discovered "the next Gloria Estefan" 3549 Quintanilla chose EMI's offer for the potential to record an album in English, and also because she would be the first singer to sign with them.50 before Selena started recording her debut album in Spanish, Behar and Stephen Finfer asked her to record an album in English,51 she only recorded 3 pop compositions in English. The English album project was rejected because Selena needed to be well known to sell such an album.52​49​