Selena (Quintanilla)

The Queen of Tejano Music, Selena built the largest female fanbase in Mexican-American music and was in the process of crossing over to mainstream English-language pop when she was murdered at 23 in 1995 — an event that generated more vigils, flowers, and public grief in Mexico and Texas than any celebrity death since JFK. Her influence on the Latinx identity of the following generation and on contemporary artists including Beyoncé is incalculable.