Every year on April 16th we celebrate a life that was taken away from us to soon. Her music, style and personality still impacts today’s society all around the world. If you still live under a rock and have no idea who Selena Perez was, here is some background information on the Tejano Queen.
Selena Perez was born April 16, 1971 in Lake Jackson, Texas. She is the youngest out of three children. Her siblings are Suzette Quintanilla who played the drums in the bad and A.B. who wrote most of her songs and played guitar.
Once her father Abraham saw how talented the talented trio is that’s when he created “Selena y Los Dinos” and they started performing in weddings, quinces and their dad’s restaurant “Papa Gayos” in 1980.
Once the 90s hit Selena y Los Dinos skyrocketed to the top. Selena was named by Billboard Magazine as the Best Selling Latin Artist of the Decade (90s) selling with 18,000,000 albums. She was also named the fasted selling female artist in history in 1995 with her albums “Dreaming Of You” and that year she broke Mariah Carey’s records. She dominated the album sales and won awards like crazy. Selena was the first Tejano artist to win a Grammy and she was named “Female Artist of The Year” for nine years straight at the Tejano Music Awards.
Random fact*- during the years the Los Dinos toured together she met her husband Chris. He was a guitarist for her band and both of them secretly got married in 1992. Of course her dad wasn’t pleased but eventually he came around.
Community Involvement
While Selena was alive she was very involved with the community. She encouraged kids to always stay in school and was a spokesperson for the D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). Selena was someone who really cared about the community and really had a heart of gold.
1995
The year of 1995 brought tragedy. She was shot and killed by the president of her fan club who shall not be named. Selena would have been 47 years old today. Even though she isn’t alive, her music still impacts current singers such as Jennifer Lopez. Which brings me to my next point.
In the year of 1997 the movie ‘Selena’ was made. It made JLo a star that she is today. A lot of what she does is heavily influenced by her Bronx roots and from the Mexican-American singer. The 1997 movie made about $35 million in the box office and the movies soundtrack reached number 7 on the billboard and stayed their for 45 weeks.
A QUEEN IS HONORED!
Today you can find Selena anywhere and by what I mean is that during the month of April you will see many places that always want to remember her legacy. In case you weren’t aware the Alamo Draft house in El Paso likes to hold a celebratory month for the queen by showing her movie and having people impersonate her on stage of course. Here is the link in case you want more information. One of the ways Selena has been honored is by MAC. MAC makeup decided to do a Selena makeup line she was always big on makeup if you see her pictures. The collection was” Como La Flor” and “Dreaming of you” lipstick and a variety of eye shadows. Another known fact about Selena is that she dreamt about being a fashion designer. She opened a boutique, which is now turned to a museum in Corpus Christi, Texas. You can find the museum located at 5410 Leopard St. hours are Monday-Friday 10 a.m to 4 p.m.
And after many years Selena has been earned on the Hollywood walk of fame. It had been a long time coming for the Mexican- American star but you know what at least she’s finally getting credit where its due. R.I.P Queen.