Born on August 23, 1962, in San Antonio, Texas. Emilio started singing at
home with his father, the late Emilio Navaira Jr., his mother, Mary Navaira,
a retired bi-lingual teacher's assistant and his two siblings, Yvette and
Raul.
Emilio's first guitar was from a pawnshop that his father bought him.
Self-taught, Emilio began to accompanying his family at birthday parties
and holiday gatherings. They would sing songs from Willie Nelson, Little
Joe Hernandez, Ramon Ayala and George Strait just to name a few.
These are memories that Emilio will never forget.
Music has always been in his life, graduating from McCollum high school
in 1980, Emilio received a music scholarship to Southwest Texas State
University in San Marcos, Texas. There he majored in music, thinking that
someday he would become a music teacher. While going to college,
Emilio played "Fredrick" in the musical "The Sound of Music" with actors
Earl Holloman and Dorothy Lamour at the Fiesta Dinner Theater in San
Antonio, Texas. After that he started singing lead vocals with Tejano artist
David Lee Garza y Los Musicales.
In 1989, Emilio formed his own band Emilio y Grupo Rio along with his
brother, Raulito. The first two years Emilio y Grupo Rio's record label was
Cara Records / CBS, their first record was nominated for a Grammy. They
then signed with Capitol/EMI which produced twelve albums and received
numerous gold and platinum records. 1994 Emilio y Grupo Rio crossed
over to country music and signed with Capitol Nashville. Their first album
"Life is Good", debut at number 13 on Billboard's Country Album charts.
Their first single, "It's Not the End of the World" was released in both
English and Spanish.
Starting the new millennium, Emilio y Grupo Rio signed with BMG US Latin.
They produced, "El Rey del Rodeo" which was nominated for a Grammy,
"Lo Dice Tu Mirada" nominated for a Latin Grammy and "Acuerdate" that
won a Grammy February 23, 2003 and was also nominated for a Latin
Grammy.
September, 2004 Emilio y Grupo Rio have gone back home to Capitol /
EMI and released their first DVD / CD named "La Historia" a collection of
their videos from years past.
Tejano/Country Superstar, Emilio has dominated the Tejano scene for
over twelve years. Single-handedly he has broken barriers in the Tejano
industry. Emilio has manage to be the first to win, Album of the Year
(Progressive) in 1993, Video of the Year in 1995, Tejano Country of the
Year in 1996 and Humanitarian of the Year in 1998.
Since 1990, Emilio has hosted the Emilio Navaira's "Tejano's for
Children" foundation. This foundation benefits the Santa Rosa Children's
Hospital and the Children's Miracle Network. Emilio Navaira's "Tejano's for Children" has raised well over $900.000 which makes Emilio very
proud and grateful to all the people, sponsors and fans that have donated
to this great cause in their own special way.
