Tejano Queen Dies

Laura Canales, known as the “Barbra Streisand of Tejano music,” died of complications from gall bladder surgery April 16th at a Corpus Christi, Texas, hospital.

Canales, 50, is credited with paving the way for stars such as Selena, Shelly Lares and Elida Reyna to break into a genre dominated by male singers.

She made her recording debut in 1973 with Los Unicos and went on to perform with El Conjunto Bernal, Snowball & Company, and Laura Canales and Encanto, according to the Express-News of San Antonio.

Canales earned female entertainer and female vocalists honors from the Tejano Music Awards from 1983 to 1987, the paper said.

She recorded for EMI Latin and later Fonovisa into the late 1990s.