It’s been 21 years since Selena, The Queen of Tejano, was murdered in Corpus Christi, Texas. On March 31, fans around the world reunite to remember the talented singer and each year comes with new surprises.
This year, “Selfanaticos Online” YouTube channel posted a video of a very young Lupillo Rivera performing a corrido he wrote for Selena on the day of her funeral.
“I was very nervous,” Lupillo told TVyNovelas as he remembered singing in front of the cameras of Univision on March 31, 1995. “This is what you do when you are just starting and want to get attention.”
Rivera added that he decided to attend the funeral and follow his dad’s, Don Pedro Rivera, advice. “He told me to find a camera and to sing the corrido I had written for her,” he said. “It was a way to show what I did because nobody wanted to play my music at the time.”
The Riveras have often been compared to the Quintanillas after Jenni Rivera, La Diva de la Banda, tragically passed away in an accident on December 9, 2012.
Both singers have been identified as pioneers in the music business because they popularized a music genre that was either unheard of, or often being denied to women. Selena introduced the world to Tex-Mex and Jenni managed to fight machismo and gained the respect of her male counterparts in the Regional Mexican/Banda category.
They may be long gone but their legacy and music will forever live through their family members, who continue to make a change in the music world, and their fans, who every year honor them both with music festivals such as “Fiesta de la Flor” and “Jenni Vive.”
Lupillo Rivera has grown to be “El Toro del Corrido,” and just like Selena and his sister, he has challenged the ordinary and successfully built a career promoting an art form the people refused to listen to in 1995.
Listen to young Lupillo’s corrido in the video below and long live “The Queen of Tejano” and “La Reina de la Banda.”
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