Third generation mexican-american, raised in Texas. She becomes a pop star in her late teens among mexicans and mexican-americans. She had begun to successfully cross over into american pop, but was tragically shot to death at the age of 23, in 1995.
- key figure in american acceptance of latino culture as a part american culture
- top-selling Latin artist of the 90s, worldwide
- to date, #15 top-selling Latin artist, worldwide
- released first spanish-language album to be the #1 US Album
- 3 months before this happened she was shot to death by an employee
- motive still unknown
her accomplishments were ground-breaking in latino pop culture. she was a quickly-rising star on the world stage, which is why her violent and unexpected death was such a shock to latinos.
her innovative genre-blending across both cultural and generational barriers:
- new wave
- rock
- salsa/merengue
- r&b
- adult contemporary
- disco
- Mexican cumbia
- norteño
- ranchero/mariachi
- flamenco
- bolero
- reggae
- new jack swing
paved the way for the largest presence of latin music in US pop culture, occurring in the early 2000s
- jLo
- Ricky Martin
- Christina Aguilera
- Shakira
- Marc Anthony
every year, the major latino-american tv networks pay tribute to selena with dedicated programming, including full concerts and documentaries.
- jLo portrayed Selena in a biopic released two years after death
- jLo becomes first Latina actress to earn over $1 million for one film
- $60 million at box office
- highest-earning latino film, to date
- debuted at #2 in US
- jLo becomes encouraged to launch a music career of her own
- her first single debuts at #1
jLo's outfit to the 2000 Grammys becomes google's most-searched query ever. google decides to develop Google Images because of this
