Selena Quintanilla started her music career when she was just eight years old as the lead singer for Selena y Los Dinos. Her father, Abraham, had formed this band to help support Selena’s signing career and talent. Together, Selena y Los Dinos (“The Boys”), released two albums together. The first one was released in 1984 and was literally an album called, “My First Recordings,” or Mis Primeras Grabaciones. They then released a second one two years later called Alpha and Munequito de Trapo. In 1986, Selena won her first award of Female Entertainer of the Year at the Tejano Music Awards at only 15 years old and continued to receive eight other Tejano awards (Orozco, 2020). This led to an increase in popularity for Selena y Los Dinos, selling over 300,00 albums together. However, in 1989, Selena signed with EMI Latin Record Label and went solo.

Within six years, Selena was able to release five studio albums and a live album. Although Selena y Los Dinos separated, her brother still helped her write many of her songs during this time. When it came to Selena’s solo career, she was very successful! Selena won her first Grammy in 1994 for her live album, Selena Live!, for “Best American American Album.” She was also nominated for “Best Mexican-American Performance” for Amor Prohibido in 1994 as well. In total, even after her death, Selena has been nominated for 86 awards and has won 67 of them. In addition to this, Selena wanted to venture out into the world of fashion and created Selenta Etc in 1994, which was two boutiques in Corpus Christi. 

Her career and legacy lives on even after her death. Selena’s family released Dreaming of You three months after she passed away. The work of Selena has sparked conversation about the impact that it has made in the Latinx community as a whole, creating the term “Selenidad,” a reference to Latinidad (Paredez, 2009). Because of Selena, there has been a “Latin explosion,” in which Latinx culture and work has become recognized. This has led to cultural, political, and economic changes because of the impact that Selena has had on the Latinx community as a whole.