Selena Quintanilla-Perez If you don’t know who this is, we can’t be friends. Period. Selena Quintanilla is iconic for so many reasons – Tejano music, girl power and fashionable outfits that were ahead of her time, but mostly for being a Tejano music legend. Born near Lake Jackson, she began singing for the family band Los Dinos as a kid. Though she also died at an early age, 23, after being murdered by the hated Yolanda Saldivar, Selena’s influence on the Texas music scene is still cherished by many. Many Texans look forward to visiting her memorial in Corpus Christi. Photo via Facebook / Selena Credit: Facebook, Selena

Selena is among the slate of artists that will be honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Recording Academy at the 2021 Grammys in January, MySA reports.

Along with the Queen of Tejano, musicians including Salt-N-Pepa, Talking Heads, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, Lionel Hampton and Marilyn Horne will each receive a Special Merit Award during the 63rd annual event, scheduled for January 31, 2021.

According to the Recording Academy, the award recognizes “performers who have made outstanding contributions of artistic significance to the field of recording.”

“The Queen of Tejano, Selena became a household name not long after her career took off in the 1980s,” the Recording Academy said in its announcement of the upcoming award recipients.

“Her 1993 album, Live, won Best Mexican-American Album at the 36th Annual GRAMMY Awards, marking the first time a female Tejano artist won the category. Though her life was tragically cut short in 1995, Selena’s crossover album, the posthumously released Dreaming Of You, sold 175,000 copies on the day of its release, a then-record for a female vocalist.”

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This article appears in Dec 16-29, 2020.

Kelly Nelson was a digital content editor for the San Antonio Current.