Juana Emilia Herrera GarcÃÂa (1932âÂÂ1993), known as Emilia Herrera or La Niña Emilia, was a Colombian bullerengue singer and songwriter. She released several albums in the 1980s and, alongside her cousin Irene MartÃÂnez, played a role in the popularisation of bullerengue as a commercially successful genre in Colombia.
Juana Emilia Herrera GarcÃÂa was born in 1932 in Evitar, in the corregimiento of Mahates in the Colombian department of BolÃÂvar.
Herrera began her music career singing backing vocals for Los Soneros de Gamero, the group fronted by her cousin Irene MartÃÂnez. Herrera and MartÃÂnez later fell out, allegedly because MartÃÂnez passed off Herrera's song "El Pájaro Picón" as her own.
In the early 1980s, Herrera sang for Eduardo Dávila, producer for Barranquilla record label Felito. Felito put together a group for her called Los Cumbiamberos de Gamero, which despite the name comprised musicians from Barranquilla, not the town of Gamero in Mahates. Herrera and Los Cumbiamberos recorded five albums for Felito in the 1980s. At first they were accompanied by Pedro Ramayá, and their debut album was Gozando con la Niña Emilia in 1984. Herrera also recorded with other Colombian artists including AnÃÂbal Velásquez and Alfredo Gutiérrez.
Herrera wrote several successful songs. Her first was "Coroncoro", written about her son having left Colombia to live in Brazil. Other notable compositions include "Currucuchú", "Periquito con Arró", "Cundé Cundé", "La Gustadera", and "El Pájaro Picón".
Herrera died of liver failure in Barranquilla on 15 September 1993, aged 61.
Jaime Andrés Monsalve wrote that Herrera's albums "mark the zenith of a phenomenon of the era: the commercialisation of traditional music, altered with elements foreign to its organology for the sake of mass release." Other bullerengue singers releasing commercially successful at the same time as Herrera include her cousin La Niña Irene, Nelda Piña, and Petrona MartÃÂnez The success of this type of bullerengue was partly driven by its popularity within the culture of the Colombian Caribbean. Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto had similar crossover success in the 1970s with their albums on CBS.
In 2017, Telecaribe made a telenovela based on Herrera's life called ', which starred .
Herrera was friends with Graciela Salgado, the leader of Las Alegres Ambulancias. In 2020, Las Alegres Ambulancias (now led by two of Salgado's children) recorded a version of Herrera's song "Coroncoro" with her daughter Nelly Herrera.
Herrera released five albums with Los Cumbiamberos de Gamero on Felito.