Selena Perez By: Renee Munoz

Who is Selena Perez Selena Q. Perez was born on April 16, 1971 in Lake Jackson Texas. She was the daughter of Abraham Q. Jr. and Marcella O. Samora. She joined her brother Abraham (A.B) who was eight and sister Suzette which was four. In March 31,1995 she was known as “The Queen of Tejano”. Selena and her group ” Los Dinos ” had a unique sound of mixing in Colombian,Cumbia, Pop and R&B.

The Start Selena started showing a passion in singing at three. When she was six she could sing in English & Spanish. She hardly knew how to sing in Spanish, but she still managed to sing in it. When Selena was nine her father Abraham started a musical group. Abraham was always had a strong passion for music. In the 50’s & 60’s he was part if a group called Los Dinos which means in English “ The Guys”. He adopted the name and put the Family name Selena y Los Dinos.

Selena Y Los Dino’s first performance was in 1980 at the Quintanilla family restaurant “ Papa Gayos”. Months later the restaurant went bankrupt. Abraham packed up his family and moved to Corpus Christi. In 1984 Selena recorded her first album called Selena Y Los Dinos on the Freddie Label. In 1987 at the Tajon Music Awards, Selena won the best Female vocalist award. An award that she won every year up to 1996. In 1989 EMI President Jose Behar attended the Tajon Music Awards he saw Selena had won. Right there he knew that he needed to signed her to EMI Latin.

The 1990’s In 1990 Selena Released Mis Primeros Exitos ( My First Hits) a collection of some of her 80’s re-recorded . In 1991, her duet with Salvadoran singer Alvaro Torres “Buenos Amigos” (Good Friends), became her first number one song. The next year she released Entre a Mi Mundo ( Enter My World) which also went gold. It continued to what was to become one of her biggest songs Como La Flor ( Like The Flower).

In 1992 She Married Chris Perez, the lead guitarist of Los Dinos, on April 2nd. In 1993, Selena had won a Grammy for Best Mexican –American performance for her album of Selena Live. She had also opened her clothing line. She opened two Selena Etc. boutiques in San Antonio and Corpus Christi. In 1994 Selena had another big year. Her album Amor Prohibido (Forbidden Love) was nominated for another Grammy.

March 31st 1995 On February 26th 1995 she did a performance to over 65,000 fans at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in the Houston Astrodome. This was the last concert that she had performance. A DVD was released September 2nd 2003. however the Quintanilla’s discovered that Selena’s fan club president and manager of her boutiques, Yolanda Saldivar, had been taking money from the fan club. They had made a decision to fire her. On the morning of March 31st Selena agreed to meet Saldivar at 11:48 am & hopefully to get some papers she had taken. She realized that she could not trust her. So when Selena was walking out the door Salvidar took the gun from her purse & shot Selena In the back . Selena ran into the office and she identified that Saldivar was her shooter. Then she passed out on the floor. She was rushed to the nearest hospital. At 1:05 pm she was pronounced dead. She was two days away from her third anniversary, 17 days away from her 24th birthday. 60,000 people came to her funeral. It was a tragedy for the Latin culture.

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