Emilio (born Emilio Navaira III, August 23, 1962) is an American Grammy award-winning singer-songwriter of Mexican heritage who performs both country music and Tejano music. He has also charted more than ten singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Latin Tracks charts, in addition to six singles on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts. He is also one of the only Tejano artists to have significant success in both the United States and Mexico.
Emilio Navaira III was born in 1962 as the third patriline Navaira to be named Emilio Navaira.Raised in San Antonio, Texas Emilio began singing to Willie Nelson, George Strait and “Little Joe” tunes at an early age and initially thought of being a music teacher.
In 1985 at age 23, Emilio began his performing career by singing lead vocals for David Lee Garza y Los Musicala. In 1987, Cuantas Veces by David Lee Garza Y Los Musicales beat out Alpha by Mexican American singer Selena for Album of the Year at the Tejano Music Awards. In 1989, Navaira formed his own band, Emilio y Groupo Rio.. That same year Emilio signed with Columbia Records (then known as CBS Records). This relationship resulted in Emilio recording more than fifteen studio albums to date, including several with his Rio Band.
By the mid 1990s, Emilio began crediting himself solely as Emilio, eventually switching his focus to country music. Between 1989 and 1996, Emilio had released seven Spanish albums with cumulative sales of about 2 million.This success lead to mainstream commercial exposure, with companies such as Coca-Cola and Wrangler Jeans using his songs in their advertisements in the 1990s.Emilio had also gained a sponsorship with Miller Lite beer, who had persuaded him to use their slogan at the time, “Life is good”, as the title of his first country album.
Emilio signed with Capitol Records and released his first country music single called “It’s Not the End of the World” which reached the Top 30 on the country charts in 1995. His album was a surprise success as well reaching #13 on the country charts and also a high placing on the Top 200. Several more singles including a Spanish version of “It’s Not the End of the World” followed but none of these singles came close to the Top 40 except “Even If I Tried” which reached #41 in 1996. In 1997, he released a second country album, “It’s On The House” but it wasn’t as successful as his first country album. Two more minor country singles followed and gradually Emilio faded from country music and increasingly came back to Tejano music.
Few of his Famous Studio Music Albums Include:
1989 Emilio Navaira y Rio Band
1990 Sensaciones
1991 Shoot It
1992 Unsung Highways
Shuffle Time
1993 Emilio Live
Southern ExposureA
1994 Sound Life
1995 Life Is Good
1996 Quédate
1997 It’s on the House
A Mi Gente
2000 El Rey del Rodeo
2001 Lo Dice Tu Mirada
2002 Acuérdate
2003 Entre Amigos
2007 De Nuevo
The other Compilation Albums are:
1997 Lo Mejor de Lo Mejor: 12 Super Éxitos
1998 Mano a Mano
1999 Mi Primer Amor: 10 Aniversario
2002 Tejano All Stars
Latin Classics
2003 15 Canciones Favoritas
2004 La Historia
2007 Colección Suprema
2 Grandes Voces Texanas
10 de Colección
Tour bus accident
Navaira was hospitalized in critical condition after his tour bus crashed early in the morning on March 23, 2008, in Bellaire (a small municipality partially surrounded by Houston, Texas). Navaira’s tour bus was traveling north along west 610 Loop near the Southwest Freeway when it crashed into a set of freeway barrels shortly before 4 a.m. Although there was some initial confusion regarding whether Navaira was the driver, his manager, Joe Casias, and Bellaire police officials said that he was, in fact driving at the time of the accident.Navaira had performed the previous night at Hallabaloo’s, a Houston nightclub. Emilio was taken by Life Flight to Memorial Hermann Hospital where a blood clot in his head was removed; he is currently being kept in a medically-induced coma and at one point, an induced hypothermia was performed to keep his brain from swelling. Doctors cautioned that he might not survive.