Selena Quintanilla Trivia
0Loading crowd target
0Loading crowd target
7correct to beat the crowd
50 free Selena Quintanilla trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Selena Quintanilla was the Queen of Tejano music, the first Latin artist to debut at number one on the Billboard 200 and, at 23, one of the most mourned entertainers of the 1990s. This Selena Quintanilla trivia quiz covers her whole story: growing up in Lake Jackson and Corpus Christi, the family band Selena y Los Dinos with A.B. on bass and Suzette on drums, learning Spanish phonetically, the nine straight Tejano Music Awards, the EMI Latin deal, the secret romance and elopement with guitarist Chris Perez, and the boutiques that made her a fashion entrepreneur. The songs and records are all here too, from Como la Flor and Bidi Bidi Bom Bom to Amor Prohibido, Live! and the Grammy it won, and the posthumous crossover album Dreaming of You, along with the events of March 31, 1995, Selena Day, the Mirador de la Flor, the MAC line, the Hollywood Walk of Fame star, Jennifer Lopez's breakout in the 1997 film and Netflix's Selena: The Series. Forty-seven questions run from easy for anyone who has seen the movie to expert for lifelong fans. Every answer is checked against documented sources rather than fan pages, so it works for a Fiesta de la Flor party or a Latin music round.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Selena is known by which regal nickname?
The Queen of Tejano Music
The Queen of Tejano Music is the title fans and the press gave Selena, who won the Tejano Music Awards' female vocalist prize year after year in a genre long dominated by men.
Q 02Selena's family was living in which Texas town when she was born in April 1971?
Lake Jackson
Lake Jackson, near the Gulf coast, was home because her father worked as a shipping clerk for Dow Chemical; the family left in the early 1980s after losing its restaurant and its house.
Q 03Which future congressman was the obstetrician at Selena's birth?
Ron Paul
Ron Paul delivered Selena while practicing obstetrics in Brazoria County, where it was said he had delivered half the babies, long before his runs for the presidency.
Q 04What was the name of the Quintanilla family's Tex-Mex restaurant where Selena first performed?
Papa Gayo's
Papa Gayo's opened in 1980 and failed within a year as the Texas oil bust hit; the family went bankrupt and was evicted from their home.
Q 05Which instrument did Selena's sister Suzette play in Selena y Los Dinos?
Drums
Suzette played drums because her father put her on them when he built a family band around Selena's voice, with their brother A.B. on bass.
Q 06Where did Selena's group get the name Los Dinos?
Her father's own earlier band
Her father's own earlier band was called Los Dinos: Abraham performed with it as a young man, gave up music to raise a family, then revived the name for his children.
Q 07What did Abraham Quintanilla name the old bus he refurbished as the band's tour vehicle?
Big Bertha
Abraham refurbished an old bus and named it Big Bertha; in the first years of touring the family sang for food and could barely pay for gasoline.
Q 08How did Selena learn the Spanish lyrics for her early Tejano recordings?
Phonetically, coached by her father
Phonetically, coached by her father: Selena grew up speaking English and wanted to record in it, but he insisted on Spanish songs tied to her heritage, and she became fluent later.
Q 09Selena's stage outfits and dance moves got her nicknamed the Mexican version of which pop star?
Madonna
Madonna was the comparison, and no accident: Selena had taken up the pop star's fashions in her late teens and went on to wear bustiers and tight outfits on stage.
Q 10Selena signed with which newly formed record label in 1989?
EMI Latin
EMI Latin had just been formed; its executive José Behar signed her after seeing her at the Tejano Music Awards, even though Sony had offered twice the fee.
Q 11Which Selena ballad did Nashville's Keith Thomas write and produce?
I Could Fall in Love
I Could Fall in Love came from Keith Thomas, known for Amy Grant's pop hits; Selena and her brother flew to Nashville to record it with him for her crossover album.
Q 12Which soft-drink company made Selena a spokesperson in Texas in 1989?
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola signed Selena as a Texas spokesperson in 1989, and the jingle for her first two commercials was written inside the band, by her brother A.B. and a bandmate.
Q 13Chris Pérez joined Selena y Los Dinos playing which instrument?
Guitar
Guitar was his instrument: Chris Pérez joined from San Antonio as lead guitarist, and he and Selena confessed their feelings at a Pizza Hut and dated in secret.
Q 21Live! made Selena the first female Tejano artist to win what?
A Grammy Award
It took Best Mexican/American Album at the 36th Grammys in 1994.
Q 22Selena briefly appeared opposite Erik Estrada in which Mexican telenovela?
Dos Mujeres, Un Camino
Dos Mujeres, Un Camino starred Erik Estrada as a trucker torn between two women and gave Selena a two-episode guest spot; in 1995 she was negotiating to star in another telenovela.
Q 23What were Selena's two clothing boutiques called?
Selena Etc.
Selena Etc. opened in 1994 as boutiques with their own salons, selling clothes she designed; the shops outlived her by fourteen years, closing in 2009.
Q 14Why did Selena and Chris Pérez marry in secret in April 1992?
Her father opposed the romance
Her father opposed the romance so fiercely that he fired Pérez and called him 'a cancer in my family'; after the elopement he apologized and took him back into the band.
Q 15Selena's first Billboard Top Latin Songs number one, 'Buenos Amigos', was a duet with whom?
Álvaro Torres
Álvaro Torres, a Salvadoran balladeer, sang 'Buenos Amigos' with her in 1991; the number one opened up touring on both US coasts.
Q 16Which 1992 Selena album, led by 'Como la Flor', topped Billboard's Regional Mexican Albums chart for eight straight months?
Entre a Mi Mundo
Entre a Mi Mundo, released weeks after her elopement, held number one for eight straight months, keeping stars such as Vicente Fernández off the top.
Q 17'Como la Flor' was inspired by a family selling what at a 1982 concert in Sacramento?
Illuminated plastic flowers
The illuminated plastic flowers stuck in the writer's memory; a decade later the melody came to him in a hotel shower in Bryan, Texas, and took 20 minutes.
Q 18Who wrote 'Como la Flor'?
A.B. Quintanilla and Pete Astudillo
A.B. Quintanilla wrote the music and Pete Astudillo, her backup singer and dancer, finished the lyrics in about an hour.
Q 19'Bidi Bidi Bom Bom' was originally written about what?
A cheerful fish swimming in the ocean
Selena improvised it at a soundcheck as a song about a cheerful fish swimming in the ocean; the title later became an onomatopoeia for a lovestruck heartbeat.
Q 20Selena's Live! album was recorded at a free concert in which venue?
Memorial Coliseum
Memorial Coliseum in Corpus Christi hosted the free show on February 7, 1993; built as a memorial to the war dead, the hall was demolished in 2010 after a city council vote.
Q 24Which Selena album produced four number-one Latin singles?
Amor Prohibido
Amor Prohibido sent four singles to number one, the title track, 'Bidi Bidi Bom Bom', 'No Me Queda Más' and 'Fotos y Recuerdos', every one written or adapted inside her own band.
Q 25Which member of Selena y Los Dinos wrote the ballad 'No Me Queda Más'?
Ricky Vela
Ricky Vela, the band's keyboardist, wrote 'No Me Queda Más' about his unrequited feelings for Suzette Quintanilla after she married in 1993.
Q 26'Fotos y Recuerdos' reworks which Pretenders song into a cumbia?
Back on the Chain Gang
A.B. heard the Pretenders' 'Back on the Chain Gang' on the radio while short of material and turned it into a cumbia with new Spanish lyrics about old photos of an ex.
Q 27Selena played a record-breaking sold-out show in February 1995 at which venue?
The Houston Astrodome
Selena drew 61,041 to the Houston Astrodome for the city's rodeo in February 1995, more than country stars such as George Strait and Reba McEntire had pulled in, a month before her death.
Q 28Selena had a cameo as a mariachi singer in which 1995 film?
Don Juan DeMarco
In Don Juan DeMarco Selena serenades the leads with a mariachi band; it was her only film role, and it reached cinemas a week after her death.
Q 29Yolanda Saldívar first entered Selena's life in what role?
Founder and president of her fan club
Founder and president of her fan club from 1991, the former nurse was later trusted to manage Selena's boutiques, where the family found she had been embezzling money.
Q 30Selena was fatally shot in March 1995 at which motel chain's Corpus Christi branch?
Days Inn
Days Inn was where Yolanda Saldívar was staying; Selena went to her room to recover overdue financial records, was shot, and died in hospital at 1:05 p.m.