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Selena Quintanilla Is Getting a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 21 Years After Her Death

Selena
Selena at the 36th Annual Grammy Awards in 1994.

Anything for Selenas! Selena Quintanilla is finally getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The late Mexican-American superstar will be honored with the prestigious plaque 21 years after her tragic death.

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The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced on Tuesday, June 28, that Selena is part of the Walk of Fame Class of 2017. The group includes other luminaries from the entertainment world such as ‘NSync, Ryan Reynolds, Amy Adams, Eva Longoria, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and New Edition, among others, who will also have their names permanently inscribed on Hollywood Boulevard.

More than two decades have passed since the “Dreaming of You” songstress was shot and killed at 23 years old on March 31, 1995, by Yolanda Saldivar, the founder of her first fan club. However, the so-called queen of Tejano music made a lasting mark on the industry, as she paved a way for future mainstream Latina pop stars such as Shakira, Paulina Rubio and Selena Gomez, whose parents named her after the Texas-born beauty.

“My dad and mom were huge fans. My name was going to be Priscilla, but my cousin actually took the name when she was born six months before me,” Gomez, who also hails from Texas, told Sacramento’s NOW 100.5 back in May. “They actually loved [Selena’s] music, so they just named me after her.”

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“I grew up, and I went to her grave,” the Disney Channel alum, 23, added. “… I remember I got to meet her family, and I just got super emotional ’cause it’s so crazy to see how far everything … I don’t know where she’d be right now. It’s nuts.”

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Selena’s last performance in Houston on February 26, 1995.

Given her indelible impact, it’s no surprise that Hollywood has paid tribute to the beloved musician in a number of ways.

She was immortalized (by a then-unknown Jennifer Lopez) in the 1997 biopic Selena. In 2015, the Mexican-American singer’s hometown of Corpus Christi introduced its Fiesta de la Flor festival, an annual two-day event created in her memory. At the 2016 Latin Billboard Music Awards, she posthumously won the award for Top Latin Albums Artist of the Year, Female.

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In October, MAC Cosmetics will release a capsule collection inspired by Selena.

“Selena’s talent and beauty, inside and out, have left a colorful, meaningful impact in the world that has continued to grow over the last two decades,” MAC senior vice president James Gager said in a statement. “We have heard the passion and enthusiasm from her fans and wholeheartedly agree that her legacy embodies MAC philosophy. We are so excited to announce a Selena-inspired MAC collection debuting in the latter part of 2016.”

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