April 16
Today is the birthday of Selena. She would be 55 today.
Selena Quintanilla was born in Lake Jackson, Texas on April 16, 1971. Her father Abraham had played in a Tejano band and knew the business. He recognized something in his youngest daughter early and built a family band around her. They played restaurants and small venues across South Texas, often for tips. Selena was nine years old and already the most magnetic person in the room.
The Crossover That Never Happened — and Still Did
By the late 1980s, Selena was the biggest Tejano star in the country. She won the Grammy for Best Mexican-American Album in 1994 for Live! — the first Tejano artist to win in that category. She was recording her first English-language album when she was murdered on March 31, 1995, in Corpus Christi, at twenty-three. The album Dreaming of You was released posthumously and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 — the first album by a Latin artist to do so. Lake Jackson put up a mural. Corpus Christi put up a statue. Texas never forgot. The Texas State Historical Association tells the full story.