Selena Quintanilla was always meant to be a star.
She was born in Jackson, Texas, on April 16, 1971. Her mother, Marcella Ofelia Quintanilla (née Samora), had Cherokee ancestry, and her father was a Mexican-American former singer named Abraham Quintanilla Jr.
Quintanilla Jr said he first noticed her musical abilities when she was just six years old.
“Her timing, her pitch were perfect, I could see it from day one,” he once told People magazine.
As the youngest member of the Quintanilla family, Selena began performing alongside her older siblings, A.B. Quintanilla and Suzette Quintanilla, in a band called Selena y Los Dinos.
They quickly rose to fame but it wasn’t long until Selena stole the show.
Selena began recording solo music in 1982 when she was just 11 years old. In 1987, she won the Tejano Music Award for Female Vocalist of the Year for the first time. She went on to…