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Lila Downs

Lila Downs

Lila Downs is one of the most influential artists in Latin America. She has one of the world’s most singular voices, and is known for her charismatic performances. Her own compositions often combine genres and rhythms as diverse as Mexican rancheras and corridos, boleros, jazz standards, hip-hop, cumbia, and North American folk music. Her music often focuses on social justice, immigration, and women’s issues.

She grew up in both Minnesota and Oaxaca Mexico, her mother is from the Mixtec indigenous group, and her father was Scottish-American. Lila sings in Spanish, English, and varios Native American languages as Zapotec, Mixtec, Nahuatl, Maya, and Purepecha.

She has recorded duets with artists as diverse as Mercedes Sosa, Caetano Veloso, Juanes, Nora Jones, Juan Gabriel, Santana, The Chieftains, Diego La Cigala, Celso Piña and Toto La Momposina. Chavela Vargas “named” Lila her “sucessor”.

Lila has graced the stages of many of the world’s most prestigious festivals and venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and the Hollywood Bowl. She was invited by Barack Obama to sing at the White House, and has performed at the Oscars for her participation in the film Frida.

Lila has recorded 14 studio albums and 2 lives. She has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards and has won six.

Lila Downs in numbers
Facebook: 1.500.000 fans
Spotify: 1.873.000 monthly listeners
Chaine Youtube: 281.716.983 views
Grammy Awards: 6 (9 nominations)

The Mexican American singer has a stunning voice, a confident multicultural vision grounded in her Mixtec Indian roots. Los Angeles Times

Ms. Downs has multiple voices, from an airborne near-falsetto down to a forthright alto and a sultry, emotive contralto. New York Times

Few alternative artists have the dynamic power and range of this bilingual warrior-woman, who has recorded nine albums, earning a Grammy and four Latin Grammys along the way. NPR

Sara Curruchich

Sara Curruchich

There is no better way of introducing Sara Curruchich than to say that being a woman in Guatemala is an act of resistance, and being a Mayan Kaqchikel woman as well as an artist is not only a political statement, but an act of defiance.

Sara Curruchich was born in 1993 in San Juan Comalapa, Chimaltenango, in a Mayan Kaqchikel community, in the central highlands of Guatemala. Her people have a long tradition of art and knowledge, as well as a history of resistance and struggle. Her music is thus born from her people’s collective and individual feelings, history, memory, culture, languages and struggles, as well as her own, personal stance as an artist.

Sara Curruchich is the first indigenous Guatemalan singer and songwriter to sing in Kaqchikel (her mother tongue), as well as Spanish, for an international audience. Her voice and message of love, awareness, respect and defense of life in all its forms, have led many people to regard her as a beacon of light and hope.

Since she began her career, Sara Curruchich has taken her message to some of Guatemala’s remotest communities, performing in rural communities, as well as well-known theaters and venues. She is also a cultural manager and teaches music workshops in grassroots communities throughout Guatemala.

Her music blends various genres such as rock, folk and traditional Mayan Kaqchikel music. Sara’s strong commitment to historical memory has earned her recognition, not only in the world of art and music, but also in various arenas for debate at a community level. To this day, she has performed in major venues in South America, Central America, North America and Europe.

In March 2020, Sara Curruchich performed in Mexico City’s Zócalo, during the Tiempo de Mujeres Festival, held as part of International Women’s Day, alongside singer/songwriters Ana Tijoux and Mon Laferte.

Sara is preparing the release of her new album Mujer Indígena (Indigenous Woman), filled with sounds that introduce her audience to new cultural beats, songs bearing powerful messages that voice the dignified strength, existence and path of indigenous women around the world. This album features duets with Rosalina Tuyuc, Carmen Cúmez, Lila Downs, Muerdo, and Amparo Sánchez. To be released in the fall of 2021.

ËDA

Ëda Diaz

From the heart of the Colombian jungle to the roofs of Paris.

ËDA – Eléonore Diaz Arbelaez is a singer and a doublebass player. Through her different musical experiences -from psychedelic rock to salsa- and thanks to her cultural heritage, she has developed a strong taste for fusion. French and Colombian, she sings in Spanish, the language of the poets who inspire her.

In 2015, she met Anthony Winzenrieth, musician and director in the pop-jazz music world. He, too, knows about latin music: before becoming part of 3SOMESISTERS, he collaborated with Ricardo Herz (Brazil) and Niuver (Cuba).

Since then, they have been working together with complicity on Eléonore’s texts and compositions, that are inspired by the power of Lhasa de Sela, the dreamlike universe of Björk, as well as the depth of James Blake, or the sweetness of Omara Portuondo. Their own fusion of traditional latin music and contemporary electro-pop is the result of a musical research process that has been enriched along the way, just like a quest for self-discovery.