THE woman who fatally shot Selena Quintanilla showed eerie signs she was fake, a former employee at the Tejano icon’s since-shuttered boutique recalled.

Thousands of fans took to social media on April 16 to pay tribute to the late trailblazing Mexican-American singer on what would have been her 54th birthday.

Selena, whose shocking murder by Yolanda Saldivar on March 31, 1995, rocked the music industry and admirers who followed the rising star who was fresh off her first Grammy Award, is commemorated in her home state of Texas annually on April 16.

For Hope Galvan, Selena’s vivacious personality remains vivid in her memory more than three decades since she first met the Bidi Bidi Bom Bom singer.

Galvan was 27 years old when she began working at Selena’s clothing and salon boutique in 1994 in Corpus Christi, about two hours southeast of San Antonio.

“She was in person exactly how her videos show. I remember when we were all gathered around with Selena doing plain manicures on each other, and my friend Tony was doing hers,” Galvan told The U.S. Sun.

“I was sitting next to her and that was a beautiful memory.”

When I first met [Selena and Yolanda] and were both sitting across from me, Yolanda came across pretending to be something she’s not.”

Hope Galvan, an employee at Selena’s boutique in 1994

Galvan recalled interviewing with Selena and Yolanda – the former manager of the singer’s fan club, who on March 27 was denied parole for the violent 1995 murder – at a hotel in downtown Corpus Christi.

“I remember my hair was so long and full. Selena said, ‘Get up and turn around! I want you to do my hair just like yours,'” Galvan said.

However, during the interview, one thought crossed through Galvan’s mind.

“I thought to myself, ‘this doesn’t match,” she remembered of Selena and Saldivar’s partnership.

“When I first met them and were both sitting across from me, Yolanda came across pretending to be something she’s not.”

To this day, Galvan still cherishes the message Selena personally left on her voicemail recorder.

“She herself called my home and left a voicemail message, ‘Hello, Esperanza, this is Selena at Selena and Boutique. Can you call me back as soon as you get this message?'” she gushed.

“My ex-husband and I would play her message over and over and over again. We couldn’t believe that she herself called and not have anything else do it.

“That’s the kind of person she was, very spirited, humble. No arrogance, or prideful, she was all Chicana like us, Tex-Mex.”

FRIENDSHIP BLOSSOMED

Martin Gomez first met Selena when he was 27, at the time he was an executive in training for the department store Dillard’s.

Gomez said Selena convinced him to come work for her as her personal fashion designer and a relationship quickly blossomed.

“It was weird, we just became friends, and I think with her is she had never met a fashion designer. We just became friends,” Gomez told The U.S. Sun.

Gomez, who is also an author and lecturer, said he and Selena would spend hours in his studio discussing fashion.

“For me, one of the biggest joys that I have in my memories with her was that my studio was upstairs to Q-Productions and she had an area where she would practice,” he recalled.

“And she didn’t practice a lot because she didn’t need to, but sometimes before performances she would come up in sweats, I would be sketching and working, and a lot of times she would have music on, she would be twirling, and that’s where I would sketch, I would just illustrate what I wanted her to wear.”

She was so ridiculously talented. And it’s more than entertainment, it was her presence, that’s one thing if you had never seen her it was beyond, she was beyond amazing.

Martin Gomez, Selena’s personal designer

Gomez remembered how he was blown away when he first heard Selena sing, “It’s funny because the first time I ever heard her sing was riding in her Porsche.

“She was singing along to a sample of what was going to be her first CD, which was Amor Prohibido.

“And I never heard her sing, so when I did see her live, I was blown out of the park. I instantly became like, wow.

“I can’t even tell you the star power that she had because of her voice. If you cut all of the percussion and the instrumental and you just heard her voice, you would be blown away.

“Her voice was powerful, like I mean really powerful, and her personality, and if you ever look at her videos and the way she stood, she was really graceful.

“She moved like a dancer, and she was never trained as a dancer, but she was just amazing. When you would see her perform, it was crazy.

“She was so ridiculously talented. And it’s more than entertainment, it was her presence, that’s one thing if you had never seen her it was beyond, she was beyond amazing.”

Gomez continued, “A lot of really touching memories are so private because she was such a sensitive girl.

“You have no idea what it was like working with her, it was so much fun. We would giggle like two little girls. We would laugh, dance – it was probably the most fun I’ve had working.

“One of the fond memories I have was literally sitting on a design table and just talking fashion, and me sketching like a madman.

“Those were the most amazing memories I have, and literally just gossiping because we were both newlyweds.

“I had just married my wife, she had just married Chris [Perez], so we were always talking about what was going on in our lives because we were so busy. It was two years, but still.”