In an ironic twist, apparently the Queen of Tejano was not particularly renowned worldwide before her death. The singer who loved to design her own stage clothes, use a snug pants and a bustier as her trademark in every concert, thus, many people started to call her "the Mexican Madonna."

Born on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson, Texas, Selena Quintanilla Perez made her first public appearance at her father's Mexican restaurant at age 8. Aware of her daughter's singing talent, Abraham grouped all his children, bassist Abe III, drummer Suzette and Selena to continue the second generation of his former group Los Dinos. The group that played Tejano, a Mexican musical styles mixed with European polkas and waltzes, started to perform after keyboardist Ricky Vela and guitarist Roger Gracia joined in. When eventually the group's guitarist replaced by Chris Perez, Selena instantly fell in love with him and the couple got married on April 2, 1992.

Los Dinos launched their debut album "Selena y Los Dinos" in 1989 and got busy afterwards. Due to the group's hectic tour schedule, Selena had to finish high school by mail and it was a worth effort as their 1992's album "Entre a Mi Mundo (Enter My World)" eventually went gold. Moreover, at age 15, she received the Tejano Music Award for Female Entertainer of the Year. Thus, the award landed her sign to Capitol EMI before she later released six successful albums, including the 1994 Grammy-winner "Live!"

Sadly, Selena's success and happiness did not last long enough as Yolanda Saldivar, the president of Selena's fan club and manager of �Selena� boutique shops, cut her life short on March 31, 1995. Things began when Saldivar asked her to discuss paperwork for taxes purposes at Corpus Christi "Days Inn." The private meeting soon turned into an argument over Saldivar's embezzlement and was ended as she shot the singer once on the back. Selena died at a local hospital an hour later, resulted the assassin to be sentenced to life in prison in October 1995. The fanatics were stunned to hear the shocking news; numerous cards and flowers were sent to honor her memory. Her cult continued as a museum and a brown metal life-sized statue of her soon built on Ocean Drive in Corpus Christi.

Selena's Spanglish album "Dreaming of You," ironically, went success and was ranked #1 on the 1995's US Billboard music charts shortly after the shooting incident. Worse, the beauty had never gotten the chance to see her cameo appearance in Johnny Depp's "Don Juan de Marco" that was brought out in the same year. Still her family and fanatics could see her repeating life in her self-titled movie, which was made based on her tragic life and released in 1997. The main cast, Jennifer Lopez, lip-synched all the songs as requested by the Quitanillas. Furthermore, "Selena Vive!," a concert tribute to mark the 10th anniversary of her death, was held at Reliant Stadium and featured many artists, such as Gloria Estefan, Thalia, Ana Gabriel and many others. In 2002, Selena's greatest hits album titled "Ones" was released.