3. SELENA
There were certainly women in Tejano music before Selena. But the genre was never the same after her contributions. The raspy-voiced songbird, who was born in Lake Jackson and raised in Corpus Christi, did things with the sound no other woman or man had ever accomplished. Selena started performing as a child with family band Los Dinos. They quickly worked their way from restaurant gigs to opening slots to sold-out shows across the world, a still-unheard-of feat for Tejano artists. Selena’s brother, A.B. Quintanilla III, crafted a sound for his sister that blended traditional Tejano elements with pop, reggae, R&B and the disco Selena loved as a child. Her best albums — “Entre a Mi Mundo,” “Amor Prohibido” — still sound innovative today. When she was killed in 1995, Selena was working on an English-language crossover album that was poised to make her an even bigger star. Ironically, her untimely death helped realize that dream. And she’s still a cultural force. Selena’s music is still in heavy rotation on the radio, and tribute events regularly draw sell-out crowds. She even inspired a MAC makeup line that sold out, twice, in a matter of minutes. But it’s clear that she would have gotten there, anyway. Most Texas musical moment: Selena performed three years running at RodeoHouston, from 1993-95, each time returning as a bigger star.