Selena - interview with actress Jennifer Lopez - includes related article on Mexican-American singer Selena Quintanilla Perez - Interview

Interview, April, 1997 by Barney Hoskyns

Selena was sensual but friendly, a Ronnie Spector crossed with a Debbie Gibson, a nurturing big sister as much as a flirty girlfriend next door, her character rooted in the family that groomed her and shielded her but, above all, loved her. Although she was pushed by her father into local child stardom with her siblings, to the best of our knowledge their band was no paternally tyrannized Jackson 5.

To millions of young Latina girls, Selena was the charismatic role model they'd been waiting for: their very own Madonna. She was at her husky best singing traditional Mexican songs like "Siempre Hace Frio," but no one could have begrudged her attempt, with the Dreaming of You album, to break into the Celine Dion market. She was a pop star in the land of opportunity, and a female icon in a genre of music that had been staunchly male. Selena never saw her twenty-fourth birthday, but she inspired the kind of love that will keep her name alive for generations.

B.H.