Selena: Age 23 | Cause Of Death: GUNSHOT
(b. 16 April 1971, Lake Jackson, TX, d. 31 March 1995, Corpus Christi, TX)
The tragic shooting death of Tejano singer Selena spawned a reaction within the Latino community that can be compared to the reactions to the deaths of Elvis Presley and John Lennon. An enormously popular singer in Latino communities across North America, her music crossed cultural boundaries to touch the lives of young and old alike. A flamboyant, sexy stage performer, sometimes hailed as the Latina Madonna, Selena was nonetheless considered a role model for off-stage she was family oriented, active in anti-drug campaigns and AIDS awareness programs. She was born Selena Quintanilla to Mexican-American parents in Lake Jackson, TX. Before her birth, her father Abraham had been a member of Los Dinos. When Selena began performing at the age of ten, her father became her manager and Los Dinos
became her backing band. In 1983, she made her recording debut in 1983 after appearing on popular the radio show of L.A. deejay Johnnie Canales. While Selena grew up understanding Spanish, English was her first language. Her first records were recorded in Spanish and she sang the words phonetically. After her music began to catch on, she began learning Spanish formally and by the time of her death, she was fluent in the language. In the ’80s, Selena married Los Dinos’ lead guitarist Chris Perez. Other group members included her brother, Abraham Quintanilla, III, who played bass and penned many of her songs, and her sister Suzette, the drummer. By 1987, she was named Female Vocalist of the Year and Performer of the Year at the Tejano Music Awards. Two years later she signed with EMI Latin and in 1990, she and Los Dinos released their eponymous debut album. Later that year she released a singles compilation, Personal Best, and she also released Ven Conmigo. In 1991 the title track of the latter became the first Tejano record to go gold. Selena also released two more albums, including one of Cumbia music, Baila Esta Cumbia that year. She won her first Grammy in 1993 for Best Mexican American Performance for her album Selena Live. That same year, she released an album of love songs, Quiero, and she also opened Selena Etc, a clothing manufacturing business. In 1994, she made her feature-film debut in Don Juan DeMarco, in which she played a singer. Later that year, she and her band embarked upon a tour of New York, LA, Argentina, and Puerto Rico. Amor Prohibido was released in 1994; the record’s title track won a Grammy and went gold. In 1995, Selena began preparing to make her breakthrough into the American pop mainstream.
In the spring of that year she was working on her first English-language album, when she went to a motel room in Corpus Christi, TX, to fire 34-year-old Yolanda Saldivar, the woman who managed Selena’s boutique in San Antonio, and the founder of the Selena fan club. A few days before the confrontation Selena’s father had unearthed paperwork proving that Saldivar had been embezzling from the fan club. Saldivar and Selena argued and as the singer left, she was shot in the back. Selena didn’t die right away and managed to stagger into the lobby where she named Saldivar as the killer. An hour later, Selena died in a local hospital. It was a death that rocked the entire Latino music industry. Saldivar was convicted for the murder of Selena in November, 1995 and sentenced to at least 30 years in prison. A special service was held in the Los Angeles Coliseum where she was to give a concert. Less than a month later, Texas governor George W. Bush declared April 16, “Selena Day,” in her honor. Dreaming of You, her final album, was released posthumously in the early summer. It became the first Tejano album to reach number one in America and was double platinum by the end of the year.
~ Sandra Brennan, All-Music Guide
Obituary
Singer Selena Shot To Death In Texas
By Sue Anne Pressley
Washington Post Staff Writer
April 1, 1995
AUSTIN, TEX., MARCH 31 — She was known simply as Selena, and, with her bustiers, high boots and lusty voice, she was often described as the Mexican American Madonna. In an incident that has left thousands of fans grieving, Selena Quintanilla Perez, 23, was shot to death this morning at a Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi, cutting short a career that had already brought her a Grammy and the promise of superstardom.
The shooting was reported shortly before noon, and late into the night police negotiated with a female suspect who was sitting in a red pickup truck in the motel parking lot and threatening suicide by holding a gun to her head, said police Capt. J.D. Brewer. Brewer, who would not release the suspect’s name, said the woman, who surrendered shortly before 10 p.m. (11 p.m. EST), is Hispanic and about 34 years old. He would not speculate about a motive for the shooting.
But Selena’s father, Abraham Quintanilla, said the woman was Yolanda Saldivar, who had been president of Selena’s fan club before she was hired at one of the singer’s boutiques. Quintanilla told the Dallas Morning News that Saldivar “was a disgruntled employee. We suspected her of embezzling money, and we started closing in on her and she just went bananas.”
“She lured Selena to the parking lot of a motel supposedly to hand over some bank statements and papers, and then she shot her,” he said.
Quintanilla said the woman had authority to write checks from Selena’s business checking accounts, and his daughter recently had become suspicious about money taken from fan club accounts.
Selena, whose vivacious singing and dancing had brought her fame throughout the Southwest and, increasingly, throughout the country, won a Grammy last year for best Mexican American album for “Live.” More recently, her album “Amor Prohibido,” or “Forbidden Love,” went quadruple platinum, with the song of the same name garnering another Grammy nomination this year. In the popular world of Tejano music — a modernized version of the old accordion-based Tex-Mex style called conjunto — she was known as “The First Lady,” and today her fans were stunned by the tragedy.
“This will probably be known as the Black Friday of the Tejano music industry,” said Rudy Trevino, executive director of the Texas Talent Musicians Association in San Antonio and sponsor of the annual Tejano Music Awards. Selena recently shone at the Tejano awards ceremony, winning seven honors, including best album, best song, best video and female entertainer of the year.
“She had so many fans who loved her and had watched her career blossom into superstardom. She was on top of the world,” Trevino said. “She will be greatly missed.”
While Selena cultivated a sexy stage presence — “like Madonna, but not so vulgar,” said fan Arlene Tarango of Austin — she was also known for her focus on family values. She began singing at age 5 in Corpus Christi with Los Dinos, the band started by her father, who is now her manager; her husband, Chris Perez, played guitar in her band. They had no children.
In a 1994 interview with the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News, Selena described her music as “polka . . . a little bit of country, a little bit of jazz,” and confessed that she had once been shy. “But I would say,” she added slyly, “I’ve broken out of that shell.”
At her concerts, male admirers often tossed their cowboy hats onto the stage and tried to storm the platform, arms outstretched to embrace her.
Long a popular fixture in the Southwest, where radio stations today played her songs and callers talked sadly about the tragedy, Selena had branched out in recent years, playing in Washington, New York and other East Coast venues. Daniel Bueno, the promoter who arranged her most recent appearance at the D.C. Armory, called her “a young rising star” and said, “When I heard the news, something happened to me, and I started crying.
“She meant a lot to Hispanics in terms of identity,” he said. “She was one of the Latinos, the young Americans, who made it. I was talking to her father last night about her next tour. She was coming back to Washington in September.”
Trevino, of the Tejano Music Awards, said Selena recently had begun recording in English, which was her first language. He had no doubt, he said, that her best career years were ahead.
She was booked to perform tonight, Bueno said, at the Sports Arena in Los Angeles.
© Copyright 1995 The Washington Post
Singer Selena Shot To Death
By ARMANDO VILLAFRANCA, PATTY REINERT
Copyright 1995 Houston Chronicle
CORPUS CHRISTI — Tejano music sensation Selena was shot to death Friday by a woman, identified as a former fan club president and ex-employee, who then threatened to kill herself and kept lawmen at bay for more than nine hours before surrendering.
The standoff ended about 9:30 p.m., with police leading the suspect safely away from the red pickup she had been in, parked outside the motel where the slaying occurred. Police handcuffed her and covered her with a police jacket before placing her in a squad car and driving away.
A crowd of about 100 people, which had been held across the street, cheered, clapped and ran after the police car as it drove away.
“It was just continuous talking and negotiating with our negotiators,” said Corpus Christi Police Chief Henry Garrett. “She demanded nothing, and she finally gave up. It’s been a long day, and it’s finally over.”
Garrett identified the suspect as Yolanda Saldivar, 32. Garrett, who said no charges would be filed until today, declined to provide details of the crime or the negotiations.
Selena , a 23-year-old Grammy award-winning singer, was idolized by Hispanic teen-agers and was on the verge of breaking into English-speaking radio. The lead singer of the band Selena y Los Dinos died of a gunshot wound at Memorial Medical Center in Corpus Christi at 1:05 p.m.
Her full name was Selena Quintanilla Perez.
Assistant Police Chief Ken Bung said the shooting happened about 11:50 a.m. at the Days Inn off Interstate 37 on the city’s north side. He declined to say whether Selena had been shot in a room, or whether she or the suspect had registered there.
“It started in a room and ended up in a lobby,” Bung said. The singer “got to the lobby on her own power.” A motel employee called 911, he said.
Bung said police were keeping mum because Saldivar was monitoring the truck radio; he would not say whether the truck belonged to Saldivar. Most stations in Corpus Christi played tributes to the recording artist throughout the standoff.
At a news conference at Memorial Medical Center, Abraham Quintanilla Jr., Selena’s father, said Saldivar was his daughter’s former fan club president and had worked at Selena Etc., a Corpus Christi boutique she owned.
Media reports also said Saldivar had been fired as manager of Selena’s store.
Onlookers and fans grew restless as the standoff continued and a light rain began to fall.
Among the onlookers was Lisa Rios, 13, a close friend of Selena’s family members, who was at Martin Middle School when news of Selena’s shooting spread quickly through the hallways.
“It was on the radio and TV, and pretty soon the whole school knew,” she said. “There was a lot of talk, and then my best friend came up to me and told me she died.”
For Rios, like many Hispanic teen-age girls in the crowd, Selena was the performer they followed and emulated.
“She knew how to sing. She sang just exactly what we wanted to hear,” Rios said.
At the homes of Quintanilla and her family, three side-by-side on a street in a Corpus Christi westside neighborhood, hundreds of fans paid tribute to the singer by holding a candlelight vigil across the street. Hundreds of flowers and wreaths were later hung on a chain-link fence surrounding the spacious homes.
Griselda Holguin, 23, and husband Miguel Gonzalez, 32, had just left Brownsville for their San Antonio home when they sang along with a Selena song on the radio Como La Flor (Like the Flower), not realizing the station was playing the song as a tribute.
“It was just a shock. It kept us quiet until we got here,” Holguin said as she stood across the street from the motel. “It’s hard to imagine someone dead when you think of her dancing.”
Her husband said he told his wife, as they headed for a detour through Corpus Christi, that the shooting reminded him of the murder of John Lennon and the effect the former Beatle’s death had on his fans.
“You turn on your radio and that’s all you hear about, it was just like John Lennon,” he said.
As the standoff continued into the evening, tactical unit officers kept watch around the woman, who sat in a red pickup and talked to officers off and on with a cellular telephone they had provided. Occasionally, the woman raised a small-caliber handgun to her right temple.
The truck was blocked by a squad car behind it and faced an open field in front. At dusk, police installed portable generator-powered lights. Officers shone the intense light on the pickup.
The only activity throughout the standoff was the release of a frightened motel maid at about 6 p.m. The maid had barricaded herself in a downstairs motel room about 20 yards from the truck. She stayed there until an officer escorted her to safety behind a bulletproof shield.
The hottest star ever to come out of Tejano music, the Grammy-winning Selena dominated this year’s annual Tejano Music Awards, winning six of 15 categories, including entertainer of the year. Her music has topped the Billboard charts for most of the past year.
Her 1994 hit Amor Prohibido (Forbidden Love) went to No. 1 on the International Latin chart and was nominated for a Grammy. She was working on an English-language crossover album to be released later this year.
In February, her performance at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo attracted a record Sunday crowd of 61,000-plus.
Born in Lake Jackson, Selena Quintanilla made her public performing debut at 8 and cut her first album in her early teens. Her father, Abraham Quintanilla, who once managed a restaurant in Lake Jackson, was her manager.
He helped her launch her career after the family moved to Corpus Christi when his Lake Jackson restaurant went out of business.
Selena’s brother, A.B. Quintanilla, has written and produced many of her hits. She was married to Christopher Perez, a musician in her band.
Known for her Madonnalike style and clothing, the 23-year-old star was fond of wearing bustiers and skintight, midriff-baring clothes.
Biography
The tragic shooting death of Tejano singer Selena spawned a reaction within the Latino community that can be compared to the reactions to the deaths of Elvis Presley and John Lennon. An enormously popular singer in Latino communities across North America, her music crossed cultural boundaries to touch the lives of young and old alike. A flamboyant, sexy stage performer, sometimes hailed as the Latina Madonna, Selena was nonetheless considered a role model. Off-stage she was family oriented, active in anti-drug campaigns and AIDS awareness programs.
She was born Selena Quintanilla to Mexican-American parents in Lake Jackson, TX. Before her birth, her father Abraham had been a member of Los Dinos. When Selena began performing at the age of ten, her father became her manager and Los Dinos became her backing band. In 1983, she made her recording debut in 1983 after appearing on popular the radio show of L.A. deejay Johnnie Canales.
While Selena grew up understanding Spanish, English was her first language. Her first records were recorded in Spanish and she sang the words phonetically. After her music began to catch on, she began learning Spanish formally and by the time of her death, she was fluent in the language.
In the ’80s, Selena married Los Dinos’ lead guitarist Chris Perez. Other group members included her brother, Abraham Quintanilla, III, who played bass and penned many of her songs, and her sister Suzette, the drummer. By 1987, she was named Female Vocalist of the Year and Performer of the Year at the Tejano Music Awards.
Two years later she signed with EMI Latin and in 1990, she and Los Dinos released their eponymous debut album. Later that year she released a singles compilation, Personal Best, and she also released Ven Conmigo.
In 1991 the title track of the latter became the first Tejano record to go gold. Selena also released two more albums, including one of Cumbia music, Baila Esta Cumbia that year. She won her first Grammy in 1993 for Best Mexican American Performance for her album Selena Live. That same year, she released an album of love songs, Quiero, and she also opened Selena Etc, a clothing manufacturing business. In 1994, she made her feature-film debut in Don Juan DeMarco, in which she played a singer. Later that year, she and her band embarked upon a tour of New York, LA, Argentina, and Puerto Rico. Amor Prohibido was released in 1994; the record’s title track won a Grammy and went gold. In 1995, Selena began preparing to make her breakthrough into the American pop mainstream.
