Selena Albums for song lyrics and biography.

Selena Quintanilla Perez was a Mexican-American singer who is considered to be one of the most popular and influential Hispanic music icons of all time. Very few other latino celebrities (e.g. Jennifer Lopez, Gloria Estefan) rival her popularity among American Hispanics. The greatest irony in Selena's musical career is that she became a star singing in her second language. Her first language was not Spanish, but English. Selena was born in Lake Jackson, Texas an April 17th, 1971 and grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas, where she began her musical career. Her father, Abraham Quintanilla Jr., was a singer with the original Los Dinos, and nurtured the burgeoning musical talent of his children. Selena, her brother Abe III, and their sister, Suzette, were a second generation of Los Dinos. Its other two members who started in the band were Ricky Vela and Roger Garcia.

Selena made her first public appearance at her father's Mexican restaurant in Lake Jackson at eight and recorded her first record at nine. Throughout her adolescence Selena was constantly on tour. She finished high school by mail and lived most of her life on the tour bus "Big Bertha". She completed her education via correspondence courses. The singer signed with Capitol EMI in 1989, and released several albums with that label, including the wildly popular Amor Prohibido. Chris Perez replaced Roger Garcia as guitar player. A romance budded between Perez and Selena, and the two married in April 1992. Even as Selena's career skyrocketed she remained very close to her family, choosing to live next door to them in Corpus Christi. In 1994, Selena won a Grammy for Best Mexican-American Album for Live. She holds the record of drawing the biggest concert crowd in the history of the Houston Astrodome, for her February 1995 performance at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

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Aside from her singing, Selena was an avid clothing designer. Boutique shops with the Selena name opened in Corpus Christi and San Antonio in the 1990s. She also dabbled in acting, making a cameo in the Johnny Depp film Don Juan de Marco. Yolanda Saldivar worked her way into the Selena's inner circle, becoming president of Selena's fan club and manager of the boutiques. In 1995 the Quintanillas found out Saldivar had embezzled money from these ventures and decided to fire her. Selena agreed to meet Saldivar at a Corpus Christi Days Inn on the morning of March 31, 1995 in order to retrieve paperwork for tax purposes. At the motel an argument ensued over the embezzlement and Saldivar shot Selena once in the back. Selena died at a local hospital at 1:05 pm, hours after she was shot.

Selena's death shocked and saddened latinos and non-latinos alike across the United States. Major networks interrupted their regular programming to break the news. The outpouring of grief by her massive faithful was unprecendented. Soon, America's reaction to her death was being compared to the reactions to the deaths of John Lennon and U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Numerous vigils and memorials were held in the singer's honor. That summer her album Dreaming of You, a combination of Spanish language hits and new English language tracks, debuted at #1 on the Billboard music charts in the US, making her the first Hispanic singer to accomplish that feat. On its release date, it sold over 175,000 copies, the most ever by an American female singer in pop history. To date, is has sold approximately 4,000,000 copies in the United States. People Magazine issued a commemorative edition in her honor, only the third such tribute in the magazine's history. It sold over a million copies and ultimately spurred the creation for People En Espanol. In October of 1995 a Houston jury convicted Saldívar of murder and sentenced her to life in prison, without possibility of parole. There is a museum to honor Selena's memory and a bronze life-sized statue of her on Ocean Drive in Corpus Christi. In 1997, Jennifer Lopez played Selena in the movie of the same name. This fact was a bit of a controversy as Jennifer Lopez was a Hispanic of Puerto Rican descent playing the role of a singer who was of Mexican descent. Lopez's role in Selena catapulted her to superstardom.

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A massive tribute concert, "Selena Vive!" was organized in April 2005, a week after the tenth anniversary of the star's death. Reliant Stadium in Houston hosted the event, which featured many high-profile artists, including Gloria Estefan, Pepe Aguilar, Thalía, Paulina Rubio, Banda El Recodo, Ana Barbara, Alejandra Guzmán, Aleks Syntek, Ana Gabriel, Fey and many others. All of the musicians present performed renditions of her music, including her brother A.B. Quintanilla, who performed along with his band Kumbia Kings, backed with footage of Selena singing "Baila Esta Cumbia". "Selena Vive!" now holds the record for the highest-rated and most-viewed Spanish-laguage show in American television history. The show, which was over 3 hours long, scored a whopping 35.9 household rating.