The legendary Queen of Tejano Selena Quintanilla never lived to see her 23th birthday and it's now incredibly been 29 years since she was killed. To think that someone so young accomplished so much in such an incredibly short lifetime is truly inspiring. Her cultural contributions continue to be so relevant and significant that fans young and not-so-young proudly get inked with Selena tattoos as a testament to her enduring appeal.
More from MamásLatinas: Celebrities who have transformed into Selena Quintanilla
It would be easy to say that she was at the peak of her career when she was murdered by the president of her fan club, but who knows how high she would have climbed given the chance. It's possible she was nowhere near the peak of her career and would have continued to blow us all away.
If she was able to do what she did in a life cut short, what could she have accomplished and how much would she have continued to contribute to the world in the years that she was robbed of? We'll never know, so instead we will continue to celebrate her legacy by listening to her music, telling her story and maybe even getting a tattoo in her honor like the ones in this gallery.
Selena wasn't only a singer.
In addition to being a phenomenal singer, Selena was a songwriter, she was an actress, a spokesperson with multiple major endorsements, and she was a passionate fashion designer as well. She was very much a multi-talented person.
She was an Aries.
She was born in Lake Jackson, Texas, on April 16, 1971, under the sign of the ram. That makes her an Aries, a sign that's known for being creative, driven and energetic. Selena definitely exemplified those traits.
Her parents had only picked out a boy's name.
Believe it or not, Selena's parents, Abraham and Marcella Quintanilla, thought they would be having a boy when they were pregnant with Selena and had only picked out a boy name. They chose the name Marc Anthony.
They decided to call her Selena.
Her parents never gave her a middle name, so she was simply Selena Quintanilla. Middle names are so common in the Latin community, that it's quite surprising, but in the end she just went by "Selena" anyway, so it all worked out.
She had a nickname.
Even though Selena didn't have a middle name, she did have a nickname, which is also very common amongst Latinos. Her nickhame was Preciosa, and it's totally fitting. Who knew that her work and legacy would become so precious to so many people throughout the world?
Music came into her life early on.
Selena was always a singer. She was reportedly already singing by the time she was 3 years old, which basically means she had it in her from birth considering that most children don't even speak fluently until that age or even later.
Selena y Los Dinos were born.
Selena's father Abraham recognized her talent from a very young age. By the time she was just 9 years old, she was already fronting her own group. The family band didn't take off for several years though.
She was a natural.
Believe it or not, she never took singing lessons. Selena truly just had raw talent that was fostered from a young age, leading to her immense success, and obviously there were people in her life who knew how to translate that talent into something special.
She recorded her first album when she was 14.
Selena's father Abraham, bought all the copies of her first album "Mis Primeras Grabaciones" which she recorded when she was just 14 years old. It was never sold in stores, but it was rereleased in 1995.
She loved roses.
Her favorite flowers were long-stemmed white roses. We would have guessed red roses since that color was so often associated with the "Como La Flor" singer, but it was actually white roses that she loved best.
Her dad pulled her out of school.
When Selena was in eighth grade, her parents pulled her out of school so that she could tour with her band. From then on she was homeschooled in between her obligations and commitments with the band.
She kept studying, though.
Even though she stopped attending public school, Selena continued her studies. She earned her high school diploma via a correspondence school called American School of Correspondence out of Chicago when she was 17.
Purple was one of her favorites.
That iconic purple stage costume we so often see images of Selena wearing was an outfit she designed herself. Black and purple were some of her favorite colors, so it's no surprise one of her most famous looks was so inspired.
Her favorite food was pizza.
Who doesn't love pizza?! Like many young people, Selena certainly did. She was known to brag about being able to eat an entire medium-sized pizza all on her own. All that energy requires plenty of fuel!
Her musical tastes were eclectic.
Like many kids born and raised in America, Selena's taste in music spanned many genres. She was a fan of country singer Garth Brooks, fellow Latina Gloria Estefan, blues singer Bonnie Raitt, and the legendary Janet Jackson.
She had a favorite song of her own.
It's been said that of her own songs, "Bidi Bidi Bom Bom" was Selena's favorite. It's definitely a favorite among her fans as well, and we bet she had a blast performing the up-tempo hit to a large audience.
Selena's fan club was founded in 1990.
With the blessing of the Quintanilla family, Yolanda Saldívar founded Selena's fan club, five years before her tragic murder at Yolanda's hands. Selena was so young at the time that Yolanda first became obsessed with her.
She loomed large on stage.
A powerful performer that seemed larger than life, she was actually only 5' 6" tall. Her stage presence was certainly outsized. It's incredible how commanding she was with the lights shining on her and a mic in hand.
In 1992, she married Chris Pérez.
Chris played lead guitar as part of Selena y Los Dinos. They met in 1989 when he joined the band and they quietly fell in love while working so closely together. They hid their romance from their bandmates and Selena's dad for some time.
Chris had joined the band in 1989.
Soon after Chris joined the band, he and Selena started dating. It didn't go over well with her dad. In fact, Abraham allegedly kicked Chris out of the band when he first discovered that he and Selena were seeing each other.
Her pre-concert drink was nonalcoholic.
Selena was so young when she started performing, so her routine was well-established by the time she was of drinking age. She would sip on hot tea with honey and lemon before her concerts, which is said to be good for the throat and vocal cords.
She was a fan's dream.
Selena was truly devoted to her fans. It's been said that she would never refuse to sign an autograph for a fan. She obviously knew that without her dedicated fans, her career could not have reached the level that it did.
She was a spokesperson for Coca-Cola.
Back in the early 1990s when Coca-Cola routinely used major celebrities in their promotional materials and commercials, Selena inked a deal with the soft drink company. She filmed three commercials for Coca-Cola between 1989 and her death.
Coca-Cola even issued Selena bottles.
In 1994 just as her career was peaking, Coca-Cola actually issued special Selena coke bottles that promptly flew off shelves and sold out. Even in the short time that she was associated with them, she made them a lot of money.
She opened clothing boutiques.
In 1994, she started designing her own line of clothing and opened Selena Etc. boutiques in the Texas cities of Corpus Christi and San Antonio. Establishing a career in fashion was something of a passion for the mega-star.
The fan club president also became boutique manager.
The boutiques that Selena opened as she expanded her career into fashion were managed by Yolanda. Selena and her family quite obviously trusted Yolanda a great deal, which of course proved to be a bad decision.
What about acting?
Selena made a cameo as a mariachi singer in the movie Don Juan DeMarco starring Johnny Depp. The movie was released in 1995, the same year she died. Although the role wouldn't have been much of a stretch for her, it did indicate that she likely had acting ambitions.
She could have been a telenovela star.
Before her death, she was in talks to star in a telenovela despite Spanish not being her first language. How great would that have been? Her growing celebrity was opening a lot of doors for her at the time.
That red on her lips!
Chanel lipstick in "Brick" was one of her favorite lip colors. The shade has since been discontinued, although in recent years, cosmetics company MAC did replicate Selena's signature shade in a line dedicated to her.
She made Grammy history.
In 1994, when she won a Grammy for her album Live, she was the first Tejano musician to win a Grammy. In 2021, she received a posthumous Lifetime Achievement Award from the Grammys, marking another historic moment.
Yolanda was caught embezzling money.
The Qunitanilla family discovered that boutique manager Yolanda was stealing money and, naturally, they no longer wanted her to work for them. From there, a tragic string of events occurred for the Quintanilla family.
Three weeks later, Yolanda murdered Selena.
Just three weeks after the discovery, Yolanda pulled a gun on Selena during a meeting that was supposed to be to transfer some paperwork. Yolanda shot Selena in the back with a revolver as she was leaving the meeting.
She was only 23 when she died.
On March 31, 1995, Selena was tragically shot and killed by Yolanda Saldívar. She was murdered just two weeks before she would have celebrated her 24th birthday, sending her family and fans into a tailspin of grief.
Her funeral was open to the public.
Because Selena had so many adoring fans who were absolutely devastated by her death, her funeral was open to the public. Approximately 60,000 people attended her funeral which was hold in Corpus Christi, Texas.
She was buried on April 3, 1995.
Selena's remains were laid to rest in Seaside Memorial Park in Corpus Christi, Texas. Although the burial ceremony was private, it's said that as many as 600 fans gathered outside of the cemetery.
Thousands auditioned to play Selena.
When the feature film about Selena's life was being cast less than two years after her death, over 20,000 women auditioned to play the role of Selena, which of course ended up making the singer perhaps even more famous posthumously than in her life.
The part went to Jennifer Lopez.
The part of course, ultimately went to Jennifer Lopez, who ended up becoming one of the biggest celebrities in the world. In 1997, she starred as Selena in the popular biopic Selena, which catapulted her stardom.
She has a day in Texas.
Soon after she died, then-Governor George W. Bush declared April 16 Selena Day in Texas. To this day, she remains one of the most famous and beloved celebrities from the nation's largest state, which says a lot since many other celebrities also hail from the Lone Star state.
MAC created a collection inspired by the legendary Tejana.
In 2016, MAC released a limited-edition Selena collection. The products were named after some of her most popular songs. The line did incredibly well and a second collection was eventually released in 2021.
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In 2017, Selena was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 22 years after her death. Just a few years later in 2020, a Netflix original series about Selena's early life that was produced in coordination with her father, premiered on the streaming service.
