Selena Quintanilla Perez, known mononymously as Selena, was an American Tejano singer.
98 Facts About Selena
2.
Selena signed with EMI Latin in 1989 and released her self-titled debut album the same year, while her brother became her principal music producer and songwriter.
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Selena released Entre a Mi Mundo, which peaked at number one on the US Billboard Regional Mexican Albums chart for eight consecutive months.
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Selena was shot and killed on March 31,1995, by Yolanda Saldivar, her friend and the former manager of her Selena Etc.
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Selena was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison with possible parole after 30 years.
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Selena has sold around 18 million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling female artists in Latin music.
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Selena Quintanilla was born on April 16,1971, in Lake Jackson, Texas.
8.
Selena was the youngest child of Marcella Ofelia Quintanilla who had Cherokee ancestry and Abraham Quintanilla Jr.
9.
Selena told People magazine, "Her timing, her pitch were perfect, I could see it from day one".
10.
Selena's father took her out of school when she was in the eighth grade.
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At seventeen, Selena earned a high school diploma from the American School of Correspondence in Chicago and was accepted at Louisiana State University.
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Selena enrolled at Pacific Western University, taking up business administration as her major subject.
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In 1984, Selena recorded her first LP record, Selena y Los Dinos, for Freddie Records.
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In 1985, to promote the album, Selena appeared on the Johnny Canales Show, a popular Spanish-language radio program, on which she has appeared for several years.
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Selena was discovered by musician Rudy Trevino, founder of the Tejano Music Awards, where she won the Female Vocalist of the Year award in 1987 and for nine consecutive years after.
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The band was often turned down by Texas music venues because of the members' ages and because Selena was their lead singer.
17.
Selena's father was often told by promoters that Selena would never be successful because she was a woman in a genre historically dominated by men.
18.
Jose Behar of newly formed label EMI Latin Records, together with the new head of Sony Music Latin, watched Selena perform at the 1989 Tejano Music Awards.
19.
Selena recorded three English-language compositions for the heads of EMI's pop division.
20.
Behar and Finfer's request for a crossover album was denied and Selena was told she needed a bigger fan base to sell such an album.
21.
Selena released her self-titled debut album on October 17,1989.
22.
Selena wrote "My Love" and wanted the song to be included on the album.
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Selena peaked at number seven on the US Billboard Regional Mexican Albums chart, becoming Selena's first recording to debut on a national music chart.
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Perez began having romantic feelings for Selena, despite having a girlfriend in San Antonio.
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Selena released her second studio album, Ven Conmigo, in September 1990.
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Selena called Perez a "cancer in my family" and threatened to disband the group if they continued their relationship.
27.
Selena thought her father would have to accept them if they were married and would not have to hide their feelings for each other.
28.
Selena was booked for a high-profile border press tour in Monterrey, Mexico, with music media figures in a meet-and-greet conference.
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Selena briefly appeared opposite Erik Estrada in a Mexican telenovela titled Dos Mujeres, Un Camino.
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Selena appeared in two episodes, which garnered record ratings for the series.
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Selena was in negotiations to open more stores in Monterrey, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.
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Selena was ranked among the twentieth-wealthiest Hispanic musicians who grossed the highest income in 1993 and 1994.
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Selena released her fourth studio album, Amor Prohibido, in March 1994.
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Selena was named "one of Latin music's most successful touring acts" during her Amor Prohibido tour.
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Selena was called the "Queen of Tejano Music" by many media outlets.
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Selena recorded a duet titled "Donde Quiera Que Estes" with the Barrio Boyzz, which was released on their album of the same name in 1994.
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In late 1994, EMI chairman Charles Koppelman decided Selena had achieved her goals in the Spanish-speaking market.
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Selena wanted to promote her as an English-language solo pop artist.
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Selena continued touring while EMI began preparing the crossover album, engaging Grammy Award-winning composers.
40.
Eight months later, Selena signed Saldivar as her registered agent in San Antonio, Texas.
41.
Employees at the stores regularly complained about Saldivar's behavior to Selena, who dismissed the claims, believing Saldivar would not negatively impose erratic decisions on Selena's fashion venture.
42.
Selena dismissed her father's inquiries because he had often distrusted people in the past.
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However, Selena did not want to dissolve their friendship; she thought Saldivar was essential to the success of the clothing line in Mexico.
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Selena wanted to keep her close because she had bank records, statements, and financial records necessary for tax preparation.
45.
Saldivar, along with Selena, appeared at a medical clinic on March 31,1995, ostensibly to have Saldivar examined for an assault which she claimed happened to her in Monterrey.
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Critically wounded, Selena ran towards the lobby, leaving a 392-foot -long trail of blood.
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Selena collapsed on the floor as the clerk called the emergency services, with Saldivar still chasing after her and calling her a "bitch".
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Selena surrendered after a nearly nine-and-a-half-hour standoff with police and the FBI.
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Selena's pupils were fixed and dilated, there was no evidence of neurological function, she had no vital signs, and was declared clinically brain dead.
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Selena felt "obligated to continue" after the emergency room doctor made the decision to reanimate the singer.
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Selena's death was front-page news in The New York Times for two days.
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Selena's funeral drew 60,000 mourners, many of whom traveled from outside the United States.
53.
In 2002, under a judge's order, the gun used to kill Selena was destroyed and the pieces were thrown into Corpus Christi Bay.
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Selena's recordings expressed "love and pain, as well as strength and passion", according to Charles Tatum.
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Selena continued, "[a]t its best, it had a coolness, a type of unadorned passion".
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Italian essayist Gaetano Prampolini wrote that "Selena's voice projected a sonorous warmth and joyfulness" during his review of Selena's cumbia recordings.
57.
Selena was often refused gigs at Tejano venues because she was a female singer in a male-dominated music scene.
58.
Selena said she never wanted to record explicit songs because of her upbringing and because her fan base consisted largely of young children, who regarded her as a role model.
59.
In 1997, Maria Celeste Arraras wrote in her book about Selena's death that the singer was a "sweet and charismatic girl".
60.
Betty Cortina of People magazine said Selena's provocative choice of clothing was an acceptable emulation of Janet Jackson and Madonna, and that she wore "sexy outfits that [accentuated] a body of a Latina woman".
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Cortina stated that Selena had a "flamboyant style, an unbelievable body, curves and booty".
62.
Selena said Selena's makeup regimen was not being "painted up or vulgar".
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Selena was inspired by Paula Abdul, Janet Jackson, and Madonna.
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Selena became an inactive member of the Jehovah's Witnesses due to her exotic clothing.
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Selena was credited as the first woman to change public perceptions of feminine beauty in the Tejano market; a feminist, she blazed a trail for other female artists during her career.
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Portillo believed Selena was sending the wrong message to young girls by dancing in clothing that suggested hypersexualization.
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American author Sandra Cisneros agreed with Portillo's assessment that Selena was "not a good role model to Latina women".
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Media outlets shared Portillo's views; they said the "fairy tale story" of Selena was one that her family would want to preserve, questioning Quintanilla Jr.
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Selena was active in the US Latino community, visiting local schools to talk to students about the importance of education.
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Selena urged children to stay in school, and that alcohol and drugs will lead them nowhere in life.
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Selena performed in Washington, DC to celebrate the forming of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
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Selena participated with the Texas Prevention Partnership which was sponsored by the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, which released an educational video that was sent to students for free.
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In January 1995, Selena headlined the Teach the Children festival in San Antonio.
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Selena has been credited for helping redefine Latin music and its subgenres of Tejano, cumbia, and Latin pop.
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Selena is considered "one of the most significant Mexican-American singers of the end of the twentieth century".
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Selena became one of the "most celebrated cultural products" of the United States-Mexico borderlands.
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Selena was called the "Queen of Tejano Music", and was described as "the most important and popular Tejano star of all time".
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Selena's death was "the most devastating loss" in Tejano music history, according to Zach Quaintance of The Monitor.
79.
At the time of her death, Selena became one of the most widely known Mexican-American vocal artists and the most popular Latin artist in the United States.
80.
Selena has been named one of the most influential Latin artists of all-time and has been credited for elevating a music genre into the mainstream market.
81.
Selena became more popular in death than when she was alive.
82.
Selena's popularity was drawn in by the LGBT community and minority groups in the United States.
83.
John Lannert of Billboard said in an interview with Biography in 2007 that when Selena died the "Tejano market died with her".
84.
Selena became the third female artist to sell over 300,000 units in one week, after Janet Jackson and Mariah Carey.
85.
Selena's death was believed to have sparked an interest in Latin music by people who were unaware of its existence.
86.
In 1995, the United States Social Security Administration ranked the name Selena one of the 100 most popular names for newborn girls, and namesake Selena Gomez acknowledged Quintanilla's influence.
87.
In December 1999, Selena was named the "top Latin artist of the '90s" and "Best selling Latin artist of the decade" by Billboard for her fourteen top-ten singles in the Top Latin Songs chart, including seven number-one hits.
88.
Selena was the best-selling Latin female singer of the 1990s in the US and Mexico.
89.
Selena was named "Best Female Vocalist of the '80s" and "Best Female Vocalist of the '90s" at the 2010 Tejano Music Awards.
90.
In 1995, Selena was inducted into the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame, the Hard Rock Cafe's Hall of Fame, and the South Texas Music Hall of Fame.
91.
Selena was named one of the 20 most influential Texans of all time by author Laurie Jasinski.
92.
Selena was ranked fifth of the "100 most influential Latin musicians of the 20th century" according to the Orange County Register.
93.
Selena opened in 1,850 theaters worldwide and grossed $11,615,722, making it the second-highest-grossing film debut that week.
94.
In 1999, a Broadway-bound musical titled Selena was scheduled to premiere in San Antonio in March 2000 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of her murder.
95.
Selena was inducted into the Texas Women's Hall of Fame at Texas Woman's University in October 2016.
96.
On December 11,2018, it was announced that a biographical television series based on Selena's life titled Selena: The Series would be released on Netflix in December 2020.
97.
Actress Christian Serratos plays the leading role as Selena, which was shown in a teaser trailer in late 2019.
98.
Selena: The Series is an American biographical drama streaming television series created by Moises Zamora and starring Christian Serratos.