Leslie Lugo, Briana Rocha, Ram Herrera, Massiel Nistal, Maricela Sánchez and Kiara Reyna are the voices for a special tribute to Laura Canales, known as “La Reina de la Onda Tejana” (“Queen of the Tejano Wave”), was born on August 19, 1954, in Kingsville, Texas. Canales recorded her first single, “Midnight Blue,” in 1975. Over the next two decades, she recorded more than twenty albums and CDs and became increasingly popular as an interpreter of contemporary Tejano music, which earned her the title “La Reina de la Onda Tejana.” Among her well-known hits are “Eternamente,” “O Gran Dios,” “No Lastimes Mas,” “Cinco Canas Mas,” and “Miki-Wiki.” Her 1990 album, No Regrets, remained on the Tejano music charts for thirteen weeks. She won her first “Female Entertainer” and first “Female Vocalist of the Year” awards from the Tejano Music Awards in 1983 and was recognized with this honor several more times. In 2000 she was among the first group of musicians inducted into the Tejano R.O.O.T.S. (Recognizing our Own Tejano Stars) Hall of Fame.Canales, who was said to possess a “rich, supple voice and a friendly, exuberant personality,” gained a legion of devoted fans during her career. Her popularity may have been in part due to her adherence to the Tejano conjunto tradition. She always retained an accordion player in her musical group and regularly offered a performance lineup of “traditionally polka-based conjunto.”Laura Canales had been performing with the Leyendas y Raises tour, which included such notable Tejano musicians as Augustín Ramírez, Sunny Ozuna, and Freddie Martínez in 2005, when she became ill. After undergoing gall bladder surgery on March 28, 2005, at Christus Spohn Hospital in Corpus Christi, she contracted pneumonia and suffered other complications. She died a few weeks later on April 16, 2005, at the age of fifty.