Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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NAVAIRA, Emilio

(b 23 August 1962, San Antonio TX; d 16 May 2016, New Braunfels TX of a suspected heart attack) Singer from Texas who successfully began to straddle styles, a leading voice in Tejano, an accordion-based blend of polka and country music found along the Texas border. 

He majored in music at Texas State University, after growing up listening to the music of Willie Nelson and Bob Wills; he hoped to sing country music, but at first could find work on the south side of San Antonio only by singing in Spanish, he said in an interview. But beginning in the 1980s he released albums in both Spanish and English. He had a top 30 country hit in 1995 with 'It's Not The End Of The World'. His albums included Acuérdate, which won a Grammy in 2003. Record company executives and sponsors liked him; he promoted Wrangler jeans and Stetson hats, and his first English-language country album, Life Is Good, was used in a Miller Lite ad campaign.

His career was interrupted by a car crash in March 2008 that left him with severe brain damage, and he did not perform for several years.