On the morning of March 31, 1995, American singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez was shot by Yolanda Saldívar, the president of Selena's fan club, at the Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas, shortly after Saldívar was exposed as having embezzled thousands of dollars from Selena's earnings. Although the healthcare team tried to revive Selena, she died of hypovolemic shock.
The Latino community was deeply affected by the news of Selena's death; some people traveled thousands of miles to visit her home, boutiques, and the crime scene, while churches with large congregations of Latinos held prayers in her name. All major television networks in the United States interrupted their regular programming to break the news. The public's reaction to Selena's death was compared to those that followed the deaths of John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, and John F. Kennedy. Radio personality Howard Stern mocked Selena's murder, burial, and her mourners, and criticized her music, playing her songs with gunshots in the background, causing an uproar among the Latino population. On April 12, 1995, two weeks after her death, then-Texas governor George W. Bush declared her birthday Selena Day in Texas.
At the time of Selena's death, Tejano music was one of the most popular Latin music subgenres in the United States. She was called the "Queen of Tejano music" and became the first Latina artist to have a predominantly Spanish-language album—Dreaming of You (1995)—debut and peak at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. After her death, the popularity of Tejano music waned. During Saldívar's trial for the murder—called the "trial of the century" and the most important trial for the Latino population—Saldívar said she accidentally shot Selena while attempting suicide. Saldívar was sentenced to life imprisonment. Jennifer Lopez was cast as Selena in a 1997 biopic film about her life and achieved fame after the film's release.
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