Ana Lila Downs Sánchez is a Mexican singer-songwriter. She performs her own compositions and the works of others in multiple genres, as well as tapping into Mexican traditional and popular music. She also incorporates indigenous Mexican influences and has recorded songs in many indigenous languages such as Mixtec, Zapotec, Mayan, Nahuatl and Purépecha. Born and raised in Oaxaca, she primarily studied at the Institute of Arts by Oaxaca and briefly attended the University of Minnesota, before withdrawing to focus on her musical career. She soon began performing in the traditional music scene of Oaxaca City.
María Natalia Lafourcade Silva is a Mexican pop-rock, jazz and folk singer and songwriter who, since her debut in 2002, has been one of the most successful singers in Latin America. Lafourcade's voice has been categorized as a lyric soprano.
Nadia Yvonne López Ayuso, is a Mexican singer and reality television star and grammy nominee singer.
Soledad "La Sole" Pastorutti is an Argentine folk singer, who brought the genre to the younger generations at the end of the 20th century, and the beginning of the 21st.
Benny Ibarra de Llano known as Benny Ibarra is a Mexican singer, musician, producer and actor. He was born into a family of artists. His mother, Julissa, was a singer and actress in the 1960s; and his father, Benny, an actor and 1960s rock singer in the Mexican band Los Yaki. His brother, Alejandro Ibarra, is a singer and actor.
Lotería Cantada is a 2006 DVD featuring the Mexican-American singer Lila Downs in a series of concerts held in Mexico City and Oaxaca City, Mexico, in February 2006. The DVD is the result of a collaboration by a number of film makers working with Downs and her band. According to Down's web site, "Images were edited and intervened by nine visual artists: Ivonne Fuentes, Bruno Varela, Alejandro Cantú, Pedro Jiménez, Mario Viveros, Sal V. Ricalde, Fernando Llanos, Johnny Moreno and Elena Pardo." The performances were benefit concerts for the Guadalupe Musalem Scholarship Fund.
"Pecadora" is the second single and title track of Mexican singer-songwriter Lila Downs's third Spanish album Pecados y Milagros. The song was written by Lila Downs and Paul Cohen, and was released on November 21, 2011. "Pecadora" was announced as the second single from the album on November 19, 2011 via Lila Downs's official fan site.
Celso Duarte is a virtuoso of Paraguayan harp and Mexican jarocho harp, arranger, singer, and multi-talented instrumentalist. Duarte has performed and recorded with Lila Downs since 1998 and has also accompanied and collaborated with other artists, including Susana Baca, Celso Piña, Plácido Domingo, Mariza, Ramón Vargas, Julieta Venegas, Wynton Marsalis, The Chieftains and Ry Cooder. As a solo artist, he has performed with his band at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Joe's Pub and other historic venues. His first solo album, "De Sur a Sur ", was released in 2006.
San Patricio is an album by the Irish musical group, The Chieftains featuring Ry Cooder, released in 2010. It was their first album with Hear Music and the first studio album in over six years since Further Down the Old Plank Road (2003). It tells the story of the San Patricio battalion—a group of mainly Irish immigrant volunteer soldiers who deserted the U.S. Army in 1846 to fight on the Mexican side in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). The album features collaborations with Moya Brennan, Linda Ronstadt, Liam Neeson, Los Cenzontles, Los Tigres del Norte, Lila Downs, Van Dyke Parks, Carlos Núñez, and Chavela Vargas. The album artist is El Moisés.
Ana Margarita Díaz Aceves, better known as Ana Diaz, is a Mexican composer and singer of contemporary Mexican songs. In her musical style, she mixes sounds like jazz, blues, bossa nova, ballad, pop, Latin music, cumbia and Mexican rhythms, which essentially makes her genre world music.
"La Sandunga" is a traditional Mexican waltz and the unofficial anthem of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, in the state of Oaxaca. It is inspired by the Spanish jota style of music and also contains Native American and Mestizo elements. Sandunga is a rarely used word in the Spanish language that can be translated in a variety of ways including; gracefulness, elegance, charm, wit, and celebration. The melody of the song is believed to have originated from Andalusia and it was rearranged by Zapotec musician Andres Gutierrez . The lyrics were written by Máximo Ramó Ortiz in 1853 after the death of his mother. Ortiz, who served as governor of Tehuantepec also wrote the song in part to promote independence of the isthmus from the Mexican government. The song tells of a Zapotec woman mourning the death of her mother while crying out, "Sandunga".
Pecados y milagros is the seventh studio album by Mexican singer-songwriter Lila Downs, released on October 18, 2011. The album cover was released on September 14, 2011.
Azuláo en Vivo con Lila Downs, is a live acoustic album of the Mexican singer Lila Downs. Recorded in April 1996 in Oaxaca City. This album is considered as one of the best of the artist. It opened the path to her commercial success in Mexico and the United States. Lila Downs achieved this success partly because this album was released in different parts of the Mexican Republic and was its first album to be released in CD.
"Palomo del Comalito (La Molienda)" is the second official single of Mexican singer-songwriter Lila Downs's third Spanish album Pecados y Milagros. The song was written by Lila Downs and Paul Cohen, and was released on October 15, 2011. Musically, Palomo del Comalito is a cumbia-rock which is a song andean with influences by Latin and pop. Lila Downs recorded the song in September 2011 in Mexico City. It was written by herself along with Paul Cohen and produced by Aneiro Tano and Celso Duarte, in collaboration with Brazilian guitarist Guilherme Monteiro. The letter is inspired by the "grinders" are women who make tortillas in a votive offering of a Oaxacan woman fell ill and was entrusted to the Juquila Virgin, and so he recovered from his evil and is back to make tortillas, as a thank represent their "miracle" in a painting. The song received rave reviews. Ixtli Martínez MVS News said "One of the best tracks on the album is" El Palomo of Comalito "is exactly the kind of song without a doubt goes to the heart, is a mixture of sadness and joy.
"La Llorona" is a Mexican folk song derived from the legend of La Llorona. There are many versions of the song. Its origins are obscure, but, around 1941, composer Andres Henestrosa mentioned hearing the song in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. He popularized the song and may have added to the existing verses.
Shake Away is the sixth studio album by Mexican singer-songwriter Lila Downs. It was released on 2 September 2008 on Manhattan Records. After attaining international success in 2001 with her first English record, Border, Downs wanted to release a fifth Spanish-English language project as its followup. In the vein of her earlier work, the album is heavily influenced by world music, flamenco and rock. Downs enlisted Paul Cohen as executive producer, also working with Celso Duarte, Brian Lynch and Aneiro Taño.
Balas y Chocolate is the eleventh album by Mexican singer-songwriter Lila Downs. Released on March 24, 2015, by RCA Records. US release on April 14, 2015. After a flurry of unexpected album content leaks, including three early demos in February 2015, the record's release was locked in for March 2015, and the track "Balas y Chocolate" officially released on MTV on February 24, 2015. "Patria Madrina" was designated the album's lead single.
Pasatono Orquesta (Orchestra) is an eight-member ensemble of ethnomusicologists dedicated to rescuing and performing traditional Oaxacan music, especially that of the Mixtec region, and to promote it by adding more modern arrangements and influences. It was founded by three Oaxacan students at the Escuela Nacional de Música in Mexico City, who found that their traditional music was not taught at the school. They have been promoted by Lila Downs, have released four albums, and have toured the United States, playing in venues such as Lincoln Center in New York and Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. In Mexico, they have played in venues in Mexico City and Oaxaca, as well as the Festival Internacional Cervantino.
Balas y Chocolate World Tour is the fifth concert tour of the Mexican singer Lila Downs, which is the eighth studio album is promoted : Balas y Chocolate.
An ofrenda is the offering placed in a home altar during the annual and traditionally Mexican Día de Muertos celebration.
