Selena Quintanilla Perez

Selena Quintanilla

Do you have a person you look up? Someone you admire the most? Someone you wish you could be? Well this is my number one person I admire the most. The reason I choose this person is because she showed that if you dream big you will go far in life. She also showed that young girls can be anything in life. Selena Quintanilla Perez was born on April 16, 1971 in Lake Jackson, Texas. Her father's name was Abraham Quintanilla Jr. and her mother's name was Marcella Ofelia Samora. Her brother’s name was Abraham (A.B) who was eight and her sister Suzette who was four years old. Selena started singing at the age of eight years old at bars, weddings, restaurants, and fairs. The band was called “Selena Y Los Dinos” made by their dad, Abraham Quintanilla, Suzette played the drums, while Abraham Junior played the bass, and well Selena she sang. Selena started to show interest in singing when she was three years old. By the time she was six, she started singing in both English and Spanish - even though she did not know how to speak Spanish at the time, she would sing phonetically. When she was nine her father Abraham Quintanilla Jr. started a musical group.

Selena

Selena Y Los Dino’s first performance was in 1980 at the Quintanilla’s family restaurant named “Papa Gayos”. Soon however, the restaurant went bankrupt. Then Abraham packed up his family and moved to Corpus Christi. As the year went on in 1984, Selena recorded her first album called Selena Y Los Dinos on the Freddie Label. The groups’ first recording was released in 1995 as Mis Primeras Grabaciones (My First Recordings). The second album from Selena Y Los Dinos was in 1985 as The New Girl In Town. The next album that followed were called Alpha and Munequito Ee Trapo in the year of 1986. Selena Y Los Dinos released three more albums in the year of 1987 through 1988. In the year of 1986 at Tejano Music Awards, Selena won the Best Female vocalist award.

Alvaro Torres and Selena

In the year of 1990, Selena released Mis Primeros Exitos (My First Hits) a collection of some of her best 80’s songs recorded and Ven Conmigo (Come With Me), which was the first Tejano album to win a gold status. In the year of 1991, her duet with Salvadoran singer Alvaro Torres “Buenos Amigos” (Good Friends) became her first major number one hit song. Later on in the year the song Como La Flor (Like The Flower) became one of her biggest hit songs.

Selena and Chris Perez

On April the 2nd 1992 Selena Quintanilla Perez married Chris Perez, the lead guitarist of Los Dinos. By the next year 1993 Selena had won a Grammy for Best Mexican-American performance for her album Selena Live. In that same year Selena was starting designing and manufacturing her own clothing line. Selena opened two Selena Etc. boutiques; one was in Corpus Christi and the other one in San Antonio, Texas. In the year of 1994 was another big year for her, her album called Amor Prohibido (Forbidden Love) was nominated for another Grammy. On February 26th 1995 Selena played for over 65,000 fans at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo in Houston Astrodome, which was her last concert that Selena Quintanilla Perez sang.

Selena Quintanilla Perez died on March 31st 1995 in Corpus Christs Nueces County Texas, USA. Selena Quintanilla Perez was only 23 years old when she was killed at a Days Inn Hotel, room 158, in Corpus Christi, Taxes. Selena was killed by Yolanda Saldivar who was the president and manager of her boutiques. Selena was going to fire Yolanda Saldivar because she was stealing money from Selena Quintanilla account. Saldivar had shot Selena Quintanilla Perez in the back as she was leaving the room that they were in. Selena then ran to the lobby and collapsed on the floor, but before she passed out completely she named Yolanda Saldivar has the person that shot her. Selena Quintanilla Perez was then rushed to the hospital where she was then pronounced dead at 1:05 pm. People from Texas went to her house to leave flowers and poems. At Selena Quintanilla Perez funeral more then 60,000 people came to say goodbye to her, and more then 60,000 red roses were left on her gravestone. And till this day her music has grown more and more.