Selena Memorabilia & Collectibles

 

The movie “Selena” is about the life of the late Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla Perez. A singer noted for her “Tejano” singing style. Tejano is a kind of music that fuses polkas, country-western and traditional Mexican folk music and is usually sung in Spanish. Selena was the most admired Latino singer when she died at a very young age of 23 in March 31, 1995.

 

Selena’s career started in the 1980’s with her group Selena Y Los Dinos, performing in their family-owned restaurant. Although the restaurant eventually went bankrupt, Selena continued to make albums until finally her hard work paid off and in 1986 she won the Best female vocalist award in the Tejano Music Awards. It was an award that she continued to win...   more

 

The movie “Selena” is about the life of the late Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla Perez. A singer noted for her “Tejano” singing style. Tejano is a kind of music that fuses polkas, country-western and traditional Mexican folk music and is usually sung in Spanish. Selena was the most admired Latino singer when she died at a very young age of 23 in March 31, 1995.

 

Selena’s career started in the 1980’s with her group Selena Y Los Dinos, performing in their family-owned restaurant. Although the restaurant eventually went bankrupt, Selena continued to make albums until finally her hard work paid off and in 1986 she won the Best female vocalist award in the Tejano Music Awards. It was an award that she continued to win from then until 1996; a year after her tragic death in the hands of someone whom she thought was her friend. In 1989, in the Tejano awards, after performing and winning, she was spotted by the EMI President and signed her up with EMI. On the same year, Coca Cola signed her up to be a spokesperson.

 

The 1990’s was a full of firsts and successes for Selena, she recorded an album which became the very first Tejano album to reach the gold record status. She also recorded her very first number one single, in 1991, a duet with a Salvadoran singer, entitled “Buenos Amigos”.  In 1992, she married her band’s lead guitarist Chris Perez. In 1993, her album Selena Live won for her first Grammy award for the “Best Mexican-American” performance. She also started designing clothes and opened two shops of Selena Etc. in Texas.  In 1994, she was again nominated for another Grammy for her album Amor Prohibido. In early 1995 she appeared as a mariachi singer in the movie Don Juan DeMarco which starred Johnny Depp, Marlon Brando and Faye Dunaway. In February 1995, she had what would be her last concert at the Houston Astrodome, playing for more than 65,000 people.

 

According to sources the year was also tainted with some problems in her boutiques. They found out early in the year that the manager of her boutiques and her fan club president, Yolanda Saldivar was misusing money from her accounts.  After luring Selena with a false story, they got into an argument that ended with Saldivar shooting Selena in the back as she was running to escape. She was able to identify her shooter before she finally died in a Corpus Christi hospital. The suspect was sentenced to a life in prison.

 

Selena was portrayed by Jennifer Lopez in the movie, with Edward James Olmos portraying Selena’s father and mentor.