Selena Murdered at 23: Tejano's Brightest Star
Selena was shot by the founder of her fan club on March 31, 1995. She was 23. Yolanda Saldívar had been embezzling from Selena's boutiques and confronted Selena in a Corpus Christi hotel room when Selena tried to retrieve financial records. The bullet hit her in the back. She made it to the hotel lobby before collapsing. She was dead within the hour. Her albums sold more in the weeks after her death than in any equivalent period while she was alive. Born April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson, Texas. She was the best-selling Latin artist of the early 1990s and was beginning to cross over into English-language pop. Jennifer Lopez played her in the 1997 biopic. The film made Lopez a star. Selena never got to see what came next.
March 31, 1995
31 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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