On the morning of March 31, 1995, the American singer Selena Quintanilla-Pérez was fatally shot and wounded at the Days Inn in Corpus Christi, Texas. Although paramedics tried to revive Selena, she was pronounced dead of hypovolemic shock at Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital at 1:05 p.m. at age 23. The convicted killer, Yolanda Saldívar, was an American nurse and the president of Selena's fan club who was exposed as having embezzled thousands of dollars from the singer's earnings.

The Latino community was deeply affected by the news of Selena's death; some people traveled thousands of miles to visit her home, boutiques and the crime scene, while churches with large congregations of Latinos held prayers in her name. All major television networks in the United States interrupted their regular programming to break the news. The public's reaction to Selena's death was compared to those that followed the deaths of John Lennon, Kurt Cobain and John F. Kennedy. Three days following the murder, Selena was buried at Seaside Memorial Park. On April 12, then-Texas governor and future President George W. Bush declared her birthday Selena Day in Texas.

At the time of Selena's death, Tejano music was one of the most popular Latin music subgenres in the U.S. Selena was called the "Queen of Tejano Music" and became the first Latina artist to have a predominantly Spanish-language album—Dreaming of You (1995)—debut and peak at number one on the US Billboard 200 chart. After her death, the popularity of Tejano music waned. During Saldívar's trial for the murder—called the "trial of the century" and the most important trial for the Latino population, Saldívar said she accidentally shot Selena while attempting suicide, but the jury disbelieved her; she was found guilty of murder and given a sentence of 30 years to life imprisonment. She has been denied parole since becoming eligible in 2025.