Selena Perez By: Cyndy Trinh

 Selena Quintanilla Perez was born on April, 16,  At age 8, Selena worked singing at bars, weddings, restaurants, fairs, and such. The band she worked in was called "Selena Y Los Dinos" formed by her father, Abraham Quintanilla.  When Selena was younger, she wasn’t much into dolls, but she played challenging games. You can say she was a tomboy.

 Instead of having a normal childhood, her father, a professional and experienced Musician and ex-member of the original "Los Dinos" from the nineteen-sixties, influenced Selena and her three brothers to be dedicated Musicians.  The Country/Tex-Mex band officially started in  The band was considered to be the "family business" of the Quintanilla family.  This business was the main source they relied on to put food on the table.

 In the late nineteen-eighties Selena Y Los Dinos gained popularity in the western states, which by then Mexican immigrants were more prominent in the United States than ever.  Because of her career, she stopped attending school, which was bad.  She continued her education on the road.  At the 1987 Tejano Music Awards, Selena won Best Female Vocalist

 In 1988, she released two albums, Preciosa and Dulce Amor.  In 1989, José Behar, the former head of Sony Music Latin, signed Selena with Capitol/EMI.  He later said that he signed Selena because he thought he had discovered the next Gloria Estefan. Selena signed a contract with Coca-Cola to become one of its advertising spokesmen in Texas that same year.

 In 1991, her duet with Salvadoran singer Alvaro Torres "Buenos Amigos" (Good Friends) became her first number one song.  Selena married Chris Perez, the lead guitarist of Los Dinos, on April 2nd,  In 1993, she won a Grammy for Best Mexican-American performance for her album Selena Live. Also in 1993, she began designing and manufacturing a clothing line. She opened two Selena Etc. boutiques; one in Corpus Christi and one in San Antonio.  On February 26th 1995 she played to over 65,000 fans at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in the Houston Astrodome. The Last Concert, a DVD of her performance, was released September 2nd  In 1995, she was murdered at age 23 at the Days Inn, Room 158, in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Her Death

Taken on the 5 year anniversary of her death.

Citations  biography/a2442e73bb17ff bdc45 biography/a2442e73bb17ff bdc45 biography/a2442e73bb17ff bdc45   