Today’s Google doodle pays tribute to slain singer Selena Quintanilla from the 90s. Killed at the age of 23 in March 1995, doodle celebrates the Mexican-American singer and her achievements.
Google doodle’s manager, Perla Campose, thanks the singer for being a role model and a hero. “Thank you for teaching her that she could dream big and make it. And thank you for all the inspiration and joy your music and legacy continues to bring to the world,” the doodle’s description reads.
Born on April 16, 1971, Selena was the youngest child of the Quintanilla family. She made her musical debut in 1980 as a member of the band Selena y Los Dinos, which also included her elder siblings AB Quintanilla and Suzette Quintanilla. Selena began recording professionally in 1982.
With music interfering with her education, her parents pulled her out of school when she was in grade 8. While teachers were against this, Selena went on to earn a high school diploma from the American School of Correspondence and enrolled at Pacific Western University, taking up business administration as her major subject.
Apart from singing, Selena also indulged in philanthropy and was often refused gigs at Tejano venues because she was a female singer in a male-dominated music scene.
She was shot by her own boutique’s manager, Yolanda Saldívar. With Saldivar accused of messing around with the financial records and Selena confronting her, there was a shoot out and Saldívar shot her once on the right lower shoulder, severing an artery and causing a massive loss of blood. She arrived dead at the hospital.
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Her death left an indelible impact among her fans and the industry. George W. Bush— governor of Texas at the time— declared Selena’s birthday Selena Day in Texas. In 1997, Warner Brothers released Selena, a film about her life and career, which starred Jennifer Lopez as Selena and Lupe Ontiveros as Saldívar. As of 2016, Selena has sold over 60 million albums worldwide.
Recently, an old video interview of Selena surfaced after 20 years. The footage of the late singer on the program Tejano USA was found in a TV camera that was donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History’s Spanish-language television project by Univision.