Tejano music star Emilio Navaira dies at age 53 in Texas

By Jim Forsyth SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) – Grammy Award-winning musician Emilio Navaira, who helped take Tejano music from a Texas-based regional genre to international acclaim, has died at the age of 53, police and his publicist said on Tuesday. Police in New Braunfels, about 40 miles (65 km) northeast of San Antonio, said they were called to Navaira’s home on Monday night after receiving a report of an unconscious man who was not breathing. Navaira brought showmanship to Tejano music, along with a unique dance that became known as the “Emilio Shuffle.” “He really was the king of Tejano music,” San Antonio disc jockey Randy Carroll said. “He was the male to Tejano music what Selena was as the female to Tejano music.” “The musical family of Texas is in mourning,” Norma Duran of XimA Promotions, a music-oriented public relations firm, wrote in Spanish on Facebook.