Selena learned Spanish phonetically to sing Tejano music, then became its queen
The Queen of Tejano Music grew up speaking English and wanted to record English songs. Her father insisted she sing in the Spanish-language style of her heritage, so she learned the lyrics sound by sound under his coaching. Promoters told him no woman would succeed in the genre. She went on to win its top female award nine times running.
Selena Quintanilla was born in Lake Jackson, Texas, in 1971; the obstetrician who delivered her was Ron Paul, later a congressman. Her father, a former musician, spotted her perfect pitch and timing when she was six. His Tex-Mex restaurant, where Selena sang with her brother A.B. on bass and sister Suzette on drums, went under in the recession after the 1980s oil glut. The family lost their home, moved to Corpus Christi, and the children's band, Selena y Los Dinos, became the family business, playing street corners, weddings and fairs from a battered bus named Big Bertha, sometimes singing for food.
Tejano, a Spanish-language music blending polka, jazz and country, was dominated by men, and Texas venues often turned the band away. Her schooling suffered; her father withdrew her in eighth grade over a teacher's objections, and she later earned a diploma by correspondence at 17. Her break came through the Tejano Music Awards, where she was named Female Vocalist of the Year in 1987.
In 1989 EMI Latin signed her even though Sony offered her father twice the fee, because he saw more chance of an English crossover and wanted his children to be the first act on the new label. EMI's pop executives then refused the crossover album, saying she needed a bigger following first. She built it. Entre a Mi Mundo in 1992 spent eight straight months at the top of a regional Mexican albums chart, and Live! won a Grammy in 1994, a first for a female Tejano artist. Amor Prohibido, also from 1994, ranks among the biggest Latin sellers ever in America.
Her life ended in 1995 at 23, when she was shot by Yolanda Saldívar, the former president of her fan club and manager of her boutiques. The long-delayed crossover album, Dreaming of You, then debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, the first by a Latin artist. A 1997 film about her made a little-known Jennifer Lopez a star.
Source: Selena
