Lila Downs
Lila Downs (born Ana Lila Downs Sánchez on 9 September 1969 in Tlaxiaco) is… Read Full Bio ↴Lila Downs (born Ana Lila Downs Sánchez on 9 September 1969 in Tlaxiaco) is a Mexican singer and actress. She performs her own compositions and the works of others in multiple genres, as well as tapping into Mexican traditional and popular music.
Downs grew up there and in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She began singing ranchera music at an early age, and later sang at the fiestas of the towns in her mountain region, la Mixteca. She sang with the band Los Cadetes de Yodoyuxi and later with La Trova Serrana, a group of folk musicians from the Zapotec town of Guelatao, Oaxaca. At that time she met her musical collaborator Paul Cohen and began to create her own musical compositions, which tap into native Mesoamerican music of the Mixtec, Zapotec, Maya and Nahuatl cultures. Cohen went on to become both Downs's husband and her artistic director.
Downs is the daughter of Mixtec cabaret singer Anita Sánchez and Allen Downs, a Scottish/English-American professor of art and cinematographer from Minnesota. She grew up partly in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, partly in California as a teen, and Minnesota as an adult where she studied voice and social anthropology at the University of Minnesota. She also studied in a school of fine arts (Bellas Artes) in Oaxaca when she later returned to Mexico where she learned to weave.
In following the years, Downs and her band toured widely in Mexico, South America, the US and Europe. She was also heard in a duet with Caetano Veloso for the soundtrack to the movie Frida in a song, Burn it Blue, that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song and that she performed at the 75th Academy Awards. Other songs that she performed on the soundtrack are "Benediction and Dream," "Estrella Oscura," and "La Llorona." Other movies with a Lila Downs song are Tortilla Soup, Real Women Have Curves and Fados by Carlos Saura. She was also invited to the Twelve Girls Band's concert in Shanghai, where she sings in French and English. Downs is currently based in Coyoacán, a borough of Mexico City.
Downs 2008 album is "Ojo de Culebra / Shake Away" and includes "I Envy The Wind" (song) by Lucinda Williams and "I Would Never" by The Blue Nile. She also collaborates with artists like La Mari (singer) from Chambao (band) and Enrique Bunbury from Héroes del Silencio.
Getting closer to the "real" story, here's a poignant, fascinating bio of Lila Downs, by an excellent writer:
Lila Downs: With a Song in Her Soul
Lorenza Muñoz, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Lila Downs OAXACA, Mexico--Lila Downs knelt onstage, as if in prayer, in a dark auditorium, only a few dim lights reflected off her onyx-black hair and ruby-red lips. Before a hometown crowd, she directed her prayer-like song to La Llorona. Downs' powerful voice echoed off the stage. Suddenly she became La Llorona--a mythical woman said to haunt the river valleys of Mexico, weeping and moaning for her children whom she drowned in a fit of madness. Her story has been repeated for centuries in Mexican folklore, with a little variation but always the same tragic feeling.
The hushed audience watched her, transfixed, as she knelt in her traditional silk black and red blouse, a huipil, calling out in agony and adoration to the ghost of La Llorona:
You came out of the church one day Llorona and I saw you pass by Such a beautiful huipil you were wearing, Llorona that I thought you were the virgin. Oh my Llorona, Llorona dressed in a celestial blue And even if it costs me my life, Llorona, I will not stop adoring you.
Lila DownsShe ended her song, and for several seconds the audience members seemed not to breathe or move until they heaved a collective sigh. They had been transported to an imaginary place. They had just experienced Lila Downs at her best.
If Downs' performances are marked by anything, it is an uncanny ability to become the character of a song. Whether it is La Llorona, or a sensual jazz singer of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" in flawless English, or a coquettish Mexican singing a bolero, or a native Indian conveying the sad stories of Mexico's Mixtec, Nahuatl or Zapotec cultures in their languages, Downs discovers a part of herself in the essence in each song. She is a reflection of a 21st century world culture where ethnicity and national boundaries are blurred.
The 32-year-old is best known in Los Angeles for her electrifying performance at last year's World Festival of Sacred Music. Downs received a standing ovation that night, an honor given to only one other festival participant--the Dalai Lama.
Lila DownsShe has sung before packed houses at the Getty and at LunaPark. In 1998, she performed live on KPFK-FM (90.7). The CD of that performance, a modest endeavor with only acoustic guitar and piano accompaniment, has been the biggest-selling benefit album in KPFK history, said operations director Betto Arcos. At the Sacred Music Festival, "she was singing in Mixtec, Maya, Nahuatl and she stole the heart of not just Latinos but everyone," Arcos said.
A relative newcomer to the music scene, with only two albums released, Downs and her band recently signed a deal with Narada/Virgin records, a company that also distributes other global music acts and labels, including Peter Gabriel's Real World and David Byrne's Luaka Bop. Her first album for Narada, tentatively scheduled for release Aug. 29, will be original songs written by Downs inspired by border life. The music will include cumbias, rancheras and other eclectic mixes. Monday, Downs returns to Los Angeles for a performance at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. Downs' bicultural background, her exotic beauty and startling voice, in addition to the growing popularity of world music, could position her to reach international success.
"I was struck by her voice and the commitment that she has made to her cultural background--she integrates it in a very modern way that makes it accessible," said Richard Denhart, senior director of artists and repertoire for Narada. "I think of her as a developing artist. She really has no track record, and so it is a challenge to get her to the United States as much as possible to get her music out."
Indeed, having sung professionally for only seven years, she is still ironing out the kinks in her voice. Some critics say her eclectic song selection and arrangement obstruct the flow of her albums. To get to the next level, they believe, she must refine her performances and find a top-notch producer.
"She doesn't have a perfect voice, but she sure can perform," said Tom Schnabel, host of "Cafe L.A." on KCRW-FM (89.9). "Her strength is the way she can win a crowd. Look, Maria Callas used to blow notes right and left, but she would also blow an audience away. Same with Lila. She has a hell of a lot of stage presence. She can emote and be very dramatic."
Drama has been a constant presence in Lila Downs' life. There is an aura about her that suggests something ethereal. She is thin, with thick straight hair pulled tight into two braids often decorated by the brightly colored ribbons of her native Oaxacan Zapotec and Mixtec Indian culture--a look that has existed for centuries, but which painter Frida Kahlo popularized in the 1930s. Wearing no makeup, she dons only a dark cherry or red lipstick when she performs. Her skin, a light olive shade that allows for very light freckles to form on her nose, is in stark contrast to her dark hair, ink-black eyes and arched eyebrows. Her scent is of a musk oil, sensually perfuming the air around her.
Downs' mother, Anita, a willful, intelligent woman, decided at an early age that she would escape the chains of her ancient village. Born in San Miguel El Grande, deep in the mountains of Oaxaca, Anita was married off to an abusive man at age 15. One night as her husband snored off the day's drunken adventure, she escaped to Mexico City, literally barefoot, penniless and barely able to speak Spanish.
Being a quick study, Anita became fluent in Spanish, though never forgetting her native Mixtec. Being a striking beauty, she quickly found a job singing at a cabaret.
It was there one night in 1961 that Allen Downs appeared in her life. An adventurous professor of art and cinematography, Downs had come to Mexico to film the flight of the blue-winged teal from Canada to the Yucatan Peninsula. But when he set his eyes on Anita, Downs quickly forgot about the ducks.
"He had never seen a Mixtequita like me," recalled Anita, in slightly accented Spanish, laughing at the memory. "Even though he didn't speak Spanish and I didn't speak English, we understood each other."
There was one little snag in their love affair, however. Allen Downs was married. Within a few years, he secured a divorce, moved to Mexico City and married Anita. He wanted to have a baby right away. Wanting to make sure her husband was responsible and would stick around, however, Anita decided to wait. She waited seven years.
Finally, in 1968, their baby girl, named Lila, was born.
Lila lived a double life. Oaxaca was too remote for their daughter, so her father brought her as a teen to Southern California, where his brother lived. At Rowland Heights High School, she learned to read and write English perfectly. Anita opted to stay home in Mexico. So Downs spent most of her teenage years with her father.
When she graduated from high school, she came home to Oaxaca. But here, her identity crisis began setting in. She saw the uglier, racist, envious side of Mexico. Who was this strange child of a strapping, white American father and a petite, bronze-colored Indian mother? In a country still suffering from the scars of many conquests over the Indians, Downs was the personification of everything many Mexicans loathe and yet desperately want to be.
"It was very, very hard," Downs recollected. "I think what I do artistically had a lot to do with me as a person. I was very confused."
Her neighbors would tease her. "You're the little Indian's daughter," the children would taunt. "Yankee go home," they would write in graffiti on the family house.
She sang, but only to her mother. The notion of performing publicly was embarrassing; it reminded her of the way her mother had made a living standing on nightclub tables, surrounded by drunkards.
Suddenly one day, while taking a nap during a visit to Oaxaca, Allen Downs died of a heart attack at 68. Downs, 16 at the time, was the only other person in the house. His death is a topic she still finds difficult to talk about. She flew into a rebellion, angry that her father was dead, taking it out on her mother who in her eyes was helpless, almost submissive to the discrimination she faced in a society that resents its Indian ancestry.
"Up to that point I had spent time with my dad--the white guy," Downs said. "I realized that people treated me better because I was with a man--and [especially] a white man. And then suddenly I was left with my Indian mommy. I couldn't handle it. How could I deal with the fact that my mother speaks with a thick accent because her first language was Mixtec? I was ashamed of my Indian roots."
Lila Downs Two years later, she fled to her father's native state of Minnesota for college and buried herself in studies. She studied voice and anthropology until her junior year, but then she became disillusioned. She dropped out for about a year and became a Deadhead, living and breathing the cult-like fascination with the Grateful Dead. Soon she realized she had stopped feeling and thinking for herself. She was, she recalls, like a stoned, unbathed android, unable to put her own emotions to life. She stopped singing--not a note--thinking it a vain and superficial exercise.
Her mother, an elegant, finely kept woman, was horrified.
"I never thought she would dress like that--or that a human being would dress like that and smell like that!" Anita recalled, her eyes widening in disdain. "Her boyfriend had so much hair, he looked like a lamb."
To Lila, that stage in her life was inevitable. "It was good because it was like shedding a skin and going through a growing process which we all go through one way or another."
After two years of therapy and serious introspection, Downs snapped out of the Deadhead mode, returned to the University of Minnesota and received her degrees in voice and anthropology in 1991. But she still felt she was searching for something. She was still unable to sing. It was not until she returned to Mexico that she found the healing qualities of music.
Through music, Downs discovered herself, her Mexican and Indian heritage.
But her link would be soaked in the tragedy that has haunted the Indians of Oaxaca for centuries. Even before the Spanish conquest, her mother's people had been overrun, first by the Zapotecs--a neighboring Indian civilization--and then by the Aztecs, who changed their language, stole their gold and imposed their ways. Today, Oaxaca's enemy is poverty.
One day, home in Oaxaca, Downs was asked by her fellow Mixtecos to translate death certificates in English to their language. Many of their boys who had crossed the border into the United States searching for work had died. And though their bodies had been shipped back to their native land, their relatives wanted to know how they had died.
It was so powerful, being this translator of death. She had to sing about it, to honor these boys with so little time on Earth. She composed "Ofrenda" (Offering).
"It took a long time to decide that I wanted to sing," she said. "I needed something that was a little more intellectual and that motivated me. That is why I started to write."
In 1993, she resumed singing, performing in Oaxacan nightclubs, where she met Paul Cohen, an American saxophonist from the East Coast. They hit it off, becoming romantically involved and collaborating musically. Cohen is today the chief arranger of Downs' songs. With his encouragement she explored the grand Mexican ballads, the rancheras, the boleros, the ancient codices of the Mixtecs and Zapotecs and put them to music. Her mother encouraged her to dig deep for that emotion--sentimiento--she possessed but never really brought out.
Indeed, most audiences seem to forgive her occasional vocal missteps. This was true during a February performance in Oaxaca, where her most fervent fans have rare occasion to see her live. Although she lives in Mexico City, she is considering moving permanently to Los Angeles. Lately, as her fame has increased, her time at home in Oaxaca has been reduced to a few weekends a year. So, many of her friends and relatives, who had come to see their local girl sing on this cool night, brought their affection and love, showering her with flowers and accolades. Her fans, mind you, were not only Oaxacans. A group of visiting Minnesotans heard one of their own was singing that night.
"We flew in from Minneapolis and we are just as proud as peacocks!" said Marge Nordstrom as she shook Downs' hand backstage. "I'm a music teacher, so I know what I heard. We certainly hope you come to Minneapolis soon."
Downs graciously shook everyone's hand, accepted the roses she was handed by petite Indian girls looking up to her as a near-idol. Though smiling, her exhaustion and nervousness was visible on her face. "It is like dying a little bit every time you do pieces like 'La Llorona' because they mean so much to people," she said later. "It's like a love song to death."
The idea of fame makes her uncomfortable. It brings new questions: As her popularity increases, will she be able to handle the demands on her time? Will the new record company force her to sing music that is more popular but not as heartfelt? Without her heart and soul into it, she knows she could never continue singing.
"I never appreciated being a vocalist. I thought it was so superficial," Downs said. "You have to find the spirit to the songs, otherwise it doesn't matter how pretty you sing. I can't quite explain what it is, but I think it has something to do with getting to know yourself and feeling right about what you're doing."
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Discography
* Chacala, (2011 ? segunda parte de Ojo De Culebra - not released yet)
* Lila Downs y La Misteriosa "en París Live à Fip" (2010)
* Shake Away/Ojo De Culebra (Manhattan Records 2008)
* The Very Best Of El Alma de Lila Downs CD+DVD (EMI 2008)
* La Cantina (Narada 2006)
* Una Sangre (One Blood) (Narada 2004)
* Border (La Linea) (Narada 2001)
* Tree of Life (Yutu tata) (Narada 2000)
* La Sandunga (Narada 1999)
* Azuláo: En Vivo con Lida Downs (1996)
* Ofrenda (1994)
* The Very Best Of El Alma de Lila Downs (DVD Madrid en vivo) (EMI, 2008)
* Lotería Cantada (DVD November 2006)
Lila Downs has one of the world’s most singular voices and innovative approaches to music. She is the daughter of a Mixtec Indian woman, Anastasia Sanchez, who ran away from her village at 15 to sing in Mexico City cantinas and a University of Minnesota professor Allen Downs, who saw her singing and fell in love.
Lila grew up both in Minnesota and Oaxaca, and her music and vocal artistry has many influences, including the folk and ranchera music of Mexico and South America and American folk, jazz, blues and hip-hop. Many of her lyrics focus on issues relating to social justice, and often tell the stories of the workers who migrate from rural Mexico to work in the U.S. She studied classical voice and cultural anthropology at the University of Minnesota. “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.
She and her husband / longtime collaborator, Paul Cohen, have produced 10 studio albums, with “Pecados y Milagros” having earned both a Grammy and a Latin Grammy award, and achieving double-platinum in sales in Mexico. She received her first Latin Grammy for the 2004 release, “Una Sangre.” Her current project, “RAÍZ,” is a collaboration with Argentinian singer Soledad Pastorutti and Spanish flamenco singer La Niña Pastori. This album has garnered two 2014 Latin Grammy nominations for “Album of the Year” and “Best Folk Album.”
Lila Downs has performed at many of the world’s most prestigious festivals and venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the Festival of Sacred Music – Hollywood Bowl. She has been invited to sing at the White House, and performed on the 75th Annual Academy Awards and the 2012 Latin Grammy Awards televised ceremonies.
Her music has also been included in several feature films such as “The Counselor”, “Tortilla Soup,” “Real Women Have Curves,” “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada,” Carlos Saura’s “Fados,” “Mariachi Gringo” and “Hecho en Mexico”.
Discography
2015 Balas y Chocolate
2014 Raíz / Sony Music Entertainment (2 Latin Grammy nominations)
2012 Pecados y Milagros (Latin Grammy / Grammy)
2010 Lila Downs y La Misteriosa en París Live À FIP
2009 El Alma de Lila Downs
2008 Ojo de Culebra (Shake Away) (Grammy Nomination)
2006 La Cantina
2004 Una Sangre (One Blood) (Latin Grammy )
2001 La Línea (The Border)
2000 Árbol de la Vida (Yutu tata)
1999 La Sandunga
1996 Azuláo: En vivo con Lila Downs
1994 Ofrenda
Downs grew up there and in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She began singing ranchera music at an early age, and later sang at the fiestas of the towns in her mountain region, la Mixteca. She sang with the band Los Cadetes de Yodoyuxi and later with La Trova Serrana, a group of folk musicians from the Zapotec town of Guelatao, Oaxaca. At that time she met her musical collaborator Paul Cohen and began to create her own musical compositions, which tap into native Mesoamerican music of the Mixtec, Zapotec, Maya and Nahuatl cultures. Cohen went on to become both Downs's husband and her artistic director.
Downs is the daughter of Mixtec cabaret singer Anita Sánchez and Allen Downs, a Scottish/English-American professor of art and cinematographer from Minnesota. She grew up partly in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, partly in California as a teen, and Minnesota as an adult where she studied voice and social anthropology at the University of Minnesota. She also studied in a school of fine arts (Bellas Artes) in Oaxaca when she later returned to Mexico where she learned to weave.
In following the years, Downs and her band toured widely in Mexico, South America, the US and Europe. She was also heard in a duet with Caetano Veloso for the soundtrack to the movie Frida in a song, Burn it Blue, that was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Song and that she performed at the 75th Academy Awards. Other songs that she performed on the soundtrack are "Benediction and Dream," "Estrella Oscura," and "La Llorona." Other movies with a Lila Downs song are Tortilla Soup, Real Women Have Curves and Fados by Carlos Saura. She was also invited to the Twelve Girls Band's concert in Shanghai, where she sings in French and English. Downs is currently based in Coyoacán, a borough of Mexico City.
Downs 2008 album is "Ojo de Culebra / Shake Away" and includes "I Envy The Wind" (song) by Lucinda Williams and "I Would Never" by The Blue Nile. She also collaborates with artists like La Mari (singer) from Chambao (band) and Enrique Bunbury from Héroes del Silencio.
Getting closer to the "real" story, here's a poignant, fascinating bio of Lila Downs, by an excellent writer:
Lila Downs: With a Song in Her Soul
Lorenza Muñoz, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
Lila Downs OAXACA, Mexico--Lila Downs knelt onstage, as if in prayer, in a dark auditorium, only a few dim lights reflected off her onyx-black hair and ruby-red lips. Before a hometown crowd, she directed her prayer-like song to La Llorona. Downs' powerful voice echoed off the stage. Suddenly she became La Llorona--a mythical woman said to haunt the river valleys of Mexico, weeping and moaning for her children whom she drowned in a fit of madness. Her story has been repeated for centuries in Mexican folklore, with a little variation but always the same tragic feeling.
The hushed audience watched her, transfixed, as she knelt in her traditional silk black and red blouse, a huipil, calling out in agony and adoration to the ghost of La Llorona:
You came out of the church one day Llorona and I saw you pass by Such a beautiful huipil you were wearing, Llorona that I thought you were the virgin. Oh my Llorona, Llorona dressed in a celestial blue And even if it costs me my life, Llorona, I will not stop adoring you.
Lila DownsShe ended her song, and for several seconds the audience members seemed not to breathe or move until they heaved a collective sigh. They had been transported to an imaginary place. They had just experienced Lila Downs at her best.
If Downs' performances are marked by anything, it is an uncanny ability to become the character of a song. Whether it is La Llorona, or a sensual jazz singer of "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" in flawless English, or a coquettish Mexican singing a bolero, or a native Indian conveying the sad stories of Mexico's Mixtec, Nahuatl or Zapotec cultures in their languages, Downs discovers a part of herself in the essence in each song. She is a reflection of a 21st century world culture where ethnicity and national boundaries are blurred.
The 32-year-old is best known in Los Angeles for her electrifying performance at last year's World Festival of Sacred Music. Downs received a standing ovation that night, an honor given to only one other festival participant--the Dalai Lama.
Lila DownsShe has sung before packed houses at the Getty and at LunaPark. In 1998, she performed live on KPFK-FM (90.7). The CD of that performance, a modest endeavor with only acoustic guitar and piano accompaniment, has been the biggest-selling benefit album in KPFK history, said operations director Betto Arcos. At the Sacred Music Festival, "she was singing in Mixtec, Maya, Nahuatl and she stole the heart of not just Latinos but everyone," Arcos said.
A relative newcomer to the music scene, with only two albums released, Downs and her band recently signed a deal with Narada/Virgin records, a company that also distributes other global music acts and labels, including Peter Gabriel's Real World and David Byrne's Luaka Bop. Her first album for Narada, tentatively scheduled for release Aug. 29, will be original songs written by Downs inspired by border life. The music will include cumbias, rancheras and other eclectic mixes. Monday, Downs returns to Los Angeles for a performance at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. Downs' bicultural background, her exotic beauty and startling voice, in addition to the growing popularity of world music, could position her to reach international success.
"I was struck by her voice and the commitment that she has made to her cultural background--she integrates it in a very modern way that makes it accessible," said Richard Denhart, senior director of artists and repertoire for Narada. "I think of her as a developing artist. She really has no track record, and so it is a challenge to get her to the United States as much as possible to get her music out."
Indeed, having sung professionally for only seven years, she is still ironing out the kinks in her voice. Some critics say her eclectic song selection and arrangement obstruct the flow of her albums. To get to the next level, they believe, she must refine her performances and find a top-notch producer.
"She doesn't have a perfect voice, but she sure can perform," said Tom Schnabel, host of "Cafe L.A." on KCRW-FM (89.9). "Her strength is the way she can win a crowd. Look, Maria Callas used to blow notes right and left, but she would also blow an audience away. Same with Lila. She has a hell of a lot of stage presence. She can emote and be very dramatic."
Drama has been a constant presence in Lila Downs' life. There is an aura about her that suggests something ethereal. She is thin, with thick straight hair pulled tight into two braids often decorated by the brightly colored ribbons of her native Oaxacan Zapotec and Mixtec Indian culture--a look that has existed for centuries, but which painter Frida Kahlo popularized in the 1930s. Wearing no makeup, she dons only a dark cherry or red lipstick when she performs. Her skin, a light olive shade that allows for very light freckles to form on her nose, is in stark contrast to her dark hair, ink-black eyes and arched eyebrows. Her scent is of a musk oil, sensually perfuming the air around her.
Downs' mother, Anita, a willful, intelligent woman, decided at an early age that she would escape the chains of her ancient village. Born in San Miguel El Grande, deep in the mountains of Oaxaca, Anita was married off to an abusive man at age 15. One night as her husband snored off the day's drunken adventure, she escaped to Mexico City, literally barefoot, penniless and barely able to speak Spanish.
Being a quick study, Anita became fluent in Spanish, though never forgetting her native Mixtec. Being a striking beauty, she quickly found a job singing at a cabaret.
It was there one night in 1961 that Allen Downs appeared in her life. An adventurous professor of art and cinematography, Downs had come to Mexico to film the flight of the blue-winged teal from Canada to the Yucatan Peninsula. But when he set his eyes on Anita, Downs quickly forgot about the ducks.
"He had never seen a Mixtequita like me," recalled Anita, in slightly accented Spanish, laughing at the memory. "Even though he didn't speak Spanish and I didn't speak English, we understood each other."
There was one little snag in their love affair, however. Allen Downs was married. Within a few years, he secured a divorce, moved to Mexico City and married Anita. He wanted to have a baby right away. Wanting to make sure her husband was responsible and would stick around, however, Anita decided to wait. She waited seven years.
Finally, in 1968, their baby girl, named Lila, was born.
Lila lived a double life. Oaxaca was too remote for their daughter, so her father brought her as a teen to Southern California, where his brother lived. At Rowland Heights High School, she learned to read and write English perfectly. Anita opted to stay home in Mexico. So Downs spent most of her teenage years with her father.
When she graduated from high school, she came home to Oaxaca. But here, her identity crisis began setting in. She saw the uglier, racist, envious side of Mexico. Who was this strange child of a strapping, white American father and a petite, bronze-colored Indian mother? In a country still suffering from the scars of many conquests over the Indians, Downs was the personification of everything many Mexicans loathe and yet desperately want to be.
"It was very, very hard," Downs recollected. "I think what I do artistically had a lot to do with me as a person. I was very confused."
Her neighbors would tease her. "You're the little Indian's daughter," the children would taunt. "Yankee go home," they would write in graffiti on the family house.
She sang, but only to her mother. The notion of performing publicly was embarrassing; it reminded her of the way her mother had made a living standing on nightclub tables, surrounded by drunkards.
Suddenly one day, while taking a nap during a visit to Oaxaca, Allen Downs died of a heart attack at 68. Downs, 16 at the time, was the only other person in the house. His death is a topic she still finds difficult to talk about. She flew into a rebellion, angry that her father was dead, taking it out on her mother who in her eyes was helpless, almost submissive to the discrimination she faced in a society that resents its Indian ancestry.
"Up to that point I had spent time with my dad--the white guy," Downs said. "I realized that people treated me better because I was with a man--and [especially] a white man. And then suddenly I was left with my Indian mommy. I couldn't handle it. How could I deal with the fact that my mother speaks with a thick accent because her first language was Mixtec? I was ashamed of my Indian roots."
Lila Downs Two years later, she fled to her father's native state of Minnesota for college and buried herself in studies. She studied voice and anthropology until her junior year, but then she became disillusioned. She dropped out for about a year and became a Deadhead, living and breathing the cult-like fascination with the Grateful Dead. Soon she realized she had stopped feeling and thinking for herself. She was, she recalls, like a stoned, unbathed android, unable to put her own emotions to life. She stopped singing--not a note--thinking it a vain and superficial exercise.
Her mother, an elegant, finely kept woman, was horrified.
"I never thought she would dress like that--or that a human being would dress like that and smell like that!" Anita recalled, her eyes widening in disdain. "Her boyfriend had so much hair, he looked like a lamb."
To Lila, that stage in her life was inevitable. "It was good because it was like shedding a skin and going through a growing process which we all go through one way or another."
After two years of therapy and serious introspection, Downs snapped out of the Deadhead mode, returned to the University of Minnesota and received her degrees in voice and anthropology in 1991. But she still felt she was searching for something. She was still unable to sing. It was not until she returned to Mexico that she found the healing qualities of music.
Through music, Downs discovered herself, her Mexican and Indian heritage.
But her link would be soaked in the tragedy that has haunted the Indians of Oaxaca for centuries. Even before the Spanish conquest, her mother's people had been overrun, first by the Zapotecs--a neighboring Indian civilization--and then by the Aztecs, who changed their language, stole their gold and imposed their ways. Today, Oaxaca's enemy is poverty.
One day, home in Oaxaca, Downs was asked by her fellow Mixtecos to translate death certificates in English to their language. Many of their boys who had crossed the border into the United States searching for work had died. And though their bodies had been shipped back to their native land, their relatives wanted to know how they had died.
It was so powerful, being this translator of death. She had to sing about it, to honor these boys with so little time on Earth. She composed "Ofrenda" (Offering).
"It took a long time to decide that I wanted to sing," she said. "I needed something that was a little more intellectual and that motivated me. That is why I started to write."
In 1993, she resumed singing, performing in Oaxacan nightclubs, where she met Paul Cohen, an American saxophonist from the East Coast. They hit it off, becoming romantically involved and collaborating musically. Cohen is today the chief arranger of Downs' songs. With his encouragement she explored the grand Mexican ballads, the rancheras, the boleros, the ancient codices of the Mixtecs and Zapotecs and put them to music. Her mother encouraged her to dig deep for that emotion--sentimiento--she possessed but never really brought out.
Indeed, most audiences seem to forgive her occasional vocal missteps. This was true during a February performance in Oaxaca, where her most fervent fans have rare occasion to see her live. Although she lives in Mexico City, she is considering moving permanently to Los Angeles. Lately, as her fame has increased, her time at home in Oaxaca has been reduced to a few weekends a year. So, many of her friends and relatives, who had come to see their local girl sing on this cool night, brought their affection and love, showering her with flowers and accolades. Her fans, mind you, were not only Oaxacans. A group of visiting Minnesotans heard one of their own was singing that night.
"We flew in from Minneapolis and we are just as proud as peacocks!" said Marge Nordstrom as she shook Downs' hand backstage. "I'm a music teacher, so I know what I heard. We certainly hope you come to Minneapolis soon."
Downs graciously shook everyone's hand, accepted the roses she was handed by petite Indian girls looking up to her as a near-idol. Though smiling, her exhaustion and nervousness was visible on her face. "It is like dying a little bit every time you do pieces like 'La Llorona' because they mean so much to people," she said later. "It's like a love song to death."
The idea of fame makes her uncomfortable. It brings new questions: As her popularity increases, will she be able to handle the demands on her time? Will the new record company force her to sing music that is more popular but not as heartfelt? Without her heart and soul into it, she knows she could never continue singing.
"I never appreciated being a vocalist. I thought it was so superficial," Downs said. "You have to find the spirit to the songs, otherwise it doesn't matter how pretty you sing. I can't quite explain what it is, but I think it has something to do with getting to know yourself and feeling right about what you're doing."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Discography
* Chacala, (2011 ? segunda parte de Ojo De Culebra - not released yet)
* Lila Downs y La Misteriosa "en París Live à Fip" (2010)
* Shake Away/Ojo De Culebra (Manhattan Records 2008)
* The Very Best Of El Alma de Lila Downs CD+DVD (EMI 2008)
* La Cantina (Narada 2006)
* Una Sangre (One Blood) (Narada 2004)
* Border (La Linea) (Narada 2001)
* Tree of Life (Yutu tata) (Narada 2000)
* La Sandunga (Narada 1999)
* Azuláo: En Vivo con Lida Downs (1996)
* Ofrenda (1994)
* The Very Best Of El Alma de Lila Downs (DVD Madrid en vivo) (EMI, 2008)
* Lotería Cantada (DVD November 2006)
Lila Downs has one of the world’s most singular voices and innovative approaches to music. She is the daughter of a Mixtec Indian woman, Anastasia Sanchez, who ran away from her village at 15 to sing in Mexico City cantinas and a University of Minnesota professor Allen Downs, who saw her singing and fell in love.
Lila grew up both in Minnesota and Oaxaca, and her music and vocal artistry has many influences, including the folk and ranchera music of Mexico and South America and American folk, jazz, blues and hip-hop. Many of her lyrics focus on issues relating to social justice, and often tell the stories of the workers who migrate from rural Mexico to work in the U.S. She studied classical voice and cultural anthropology at the University of Minnesota. “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.
She and her husband / longtime collaborator, Paul Cohen, have produced 10 studio albums, with “Pecados y Milagros” having earned both a Grammy and a Latin Grammy award, and achieving double-platinum in sales in Mexico. She received her first Latin Grammy for the 2004 release, “Una Sangre.” Her current project, “RAÍZ,” is a collaboration with Argentinian singer Soledad Pastorutti and Spanish flamenco singer La Niña Pastori. This album has garnered two 2014 Latin Grammy nominations for “Album of the Year” and “Best Folk Album.”
Lila Downs has performed at many of the world’s most prestigious festivals and venues including Jazz at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the Festival of Sacred Music – Hollywood Bowl. She has been invited to sing at the White House, and performed on the 75th Annual Academy Awards and the 2012 Latin Grammy Awards televised ceremonies.
Her music has also been included in several feature films such as “The Counselor”, “Tortilla Soup,” “Real Women Have Curves,” “The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada,” Carlos Saura’s “Fados,” “Mariachi Gringo” and “Hecho en Mexico”.
Discography
2015 Balas y Chocolate
2014 Raíz / Sony Music Entertainment (2 Latin Grammy nominations)
2012 Pecados y Milagros (Latin Grammy / Grammy)
2010 Lila Downs y La Misteriosa en París Live À FIP
2009 El Alma de Lila Downs
2008 Ojo de Culebra (Shake Away) (Grammy Nomination)
2006 La Cantina
2004 Una Sangre (One Blood) (Latin Grammy )
2001 La Línea (The Border)
2000 Árbol de la Vida (Yutu tata)
1999 La Sandunga
1996 Azuláo: En vivo con Lila Downs
1994 Ofrenda
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Lila Downs Lyrics
04 La iguana Una iguana se cayó de arriba de una escalera Del porrazo…
Agua De Rosas Flor del color de mis venas De una lluvia de cielo…
Alcoba Azul La noche irá sin prisa de nostalgía Habrá de ser un…
Alcoba Azul song La noche ira sin prisa de nostalgia Habrá de ser un…
Amarga Navidad Acaba de una vez de un solo golpe ¿Por qué quieres…
Amorcito Corazón Amorcito corazon, yo tengo tentacion, de un beso. Que se pre…
Arboles De La Barranca Arboles de la barranca por que no han enverdecido es que no…
Arenita Azul Arenita azul De 'onde salió Anoche cayó l'agua La destapó…
Arráncame la vida Ichi kanu io Ta'u yo Yíí xáa keentaa yo ¡Epa! Los caminos …
Baja a la Tierra Busco de dónde vengo Que me perdí Busco de dónde vengo Que a…
Balas y Chocolate Cincuenta jícaras para Motecuhzoma En orillas del Orinoco Al…
Benediction and Dream And she's a rising flame And she's a bird in flight In…
Bésame Mucho Besame, besame mucho Como si fuera esta noche la ultima vez …
Black Magic Woman (Lila) They call me black magic woman They call me black mag…
Burn It Blue Burn this house Burn it blue Heart running on empty…
Canción Mixteca Qué lejos estoy del suelo Donde he nacido Inmensa nostalgia …
Cariñito Lloro por quererte Por amarte, por desearte Lloro por quer…
Chacarera para Mi Vuelta Dejé mi tierra cantora Por conocer otros pagos Voy andando…
Cielo Rojo Sola Sin tu cariño Voy caminando Voy caminando Why no sé qué…
Clandestino Sola voy con mi pena Sola va mi condena Correr es mi…
Cómo Será Cómo será Despertar y no verte Por la mañana Y…
Corazón Amorcito corazón Yo tengo tentación de un beso Que se brinda…
Corazoncito Tirano A donde quiera que voy me acuerdo de ti. a donde…
Cruz De Olvido Con el atardecer Me iré de aquí Me iré sin ti Me…
Cuando Me Tocas Tú Yo soy libre como el mar Cuando me tocas tú Una lluvia…
Cucurrucucú paloma Cucurrucucu paloma dicen que por las noches No mas se le…
Cumbia del Mole Cuentan que en Oaxaca se toma el mezcal con café Cuentan…
Dignificada Allá en la noche un grito, Y se escucha lejano. Cuenta…
Dime Quién Soy Yo Coge un puñao de arena fina Extiéndela por tu camino…
Dios Nunca Muere Muere el sol en los montes Con la luz que agoniza Pues…
Dos Botellas de Mezcal Cuando me muera Cómo te agradecería Que pusieras en mi tumba…
Dulce veneno Hay verdades ocultas Que se esconden en las costuras Por la …
El Bracero Fracasado Cuando yo salí del rancho No llevaba ni calzones Pero si l…
El Centenario Si eres pobre te humilla la gente Si eres rico te…
El Corrido De Tacha Llegó en la flecha roja esa muchacha Con sus tacones negros…
El Día Que Me Quieras Acaricia mi ensueño El suave murmullo de tu suspirar Como r…
El Feo Si te hablan de mi muchachita Si te hablan de mi…
El Querreque Es buena la cervecita Para el que está desvelado Para el que…
El Quinto Regimiento El dieciocho de julio En el patio de un convento El pueblo…
El relámpago Relàmpago en el viento trae mucha electricidad relàmpago en …
El Venadito Soy un pobre venadito que Habito en la serranía Soy un pobre…
Envidia Ya no me tapas esta vez Ya somos muchos Porque yo tengo…
Estrella Oscura Why ante mis ojos Virgen del Camelo… why ella es flama que…
Estrella Oscuridad Y ante mis ojos Virgen del Camelo Y ella es flama que…
Fallaste Corazón Y tú que te creías el rey de todo el…
Hanal Weech Je'e tun teecho' ki'ichpan ch'uup Kex buka'aj tu'n ja'tzilec…
Humito de Copal Dedicada a todas las compañeras Y hermanos periodistas En la…
I Envy The Wind I envy the wind That whispers in your ear That howls through…
I Would Never I have walked a thousand miles I have worked as fast…
Icnocuicatl ICNOCUICATL Mostla... Queman nehuatl nionmiquis Arno qu…
Inmortal Pueblo Fuente de mi vida Valle Aroma de Chepil Humo blanco D…
Justicia Noooo, no voy a llorar por ti, Vooooy, a guardarme este…
Justicia (featuring Enrique Bu Noooo, no voy a llorar por ti, Vooooy, a guardarme este…
La Bamba Que bonita MBA, 100496612.html" title="paroles La Bamba" cla…
La burra Viniendo del trocadero Con un burro me encontré Viniendo del…
La Cama De Piedra De piedra a de ser la cama De piedra la…
La Campanera Un saludo para Colombia En honor a Aniceto Molina Desde Méxi…
La Cucaracha La cucaracha, la cucaracha que ya no puede caminar porque n…
La Cumbia Del Mole They say in Oaxaca you drink coffee with mezcal They say…
La Farsante Creí que eras muy buena Creí que eras sincera Yo te di…
La Iguana Una iguana se cayó de arriba de una escalera del porrazo…
La Línea Ahí en esa orilla del mundo No duerme la maquiladora De un…
La Llorona Todos me dicen el negro, llorona Negro pero cariñoso Todos m…
La Malagueña Qué bonitos ojos tienes Debajo de esas dos cejas Debajo de e…
La Martiniana Niña, cuando yo muera No llores sobre mi tumba, Cántame un…
La Maza Si no creyera en la locura De la garganta del sinsonte Si…
La Mentira Se te olvida Que me quieres a pesar de lo que…
La Niña Desde temprano la niña reza pa´que su dia, no sea tan…
La Noche De Mi Mal No quiero ni volver a oír tu nombre. No quiero ni…
La Patria Madrina Hoy me levanté con el ojo pegado Ya miré el infierno,…
La promesa Parece invierno Pero el sol me quema El viento es gris Es fr…
la raÃz de mi tierra Busco de dónde vengo Que me perdí Busco de dónde vengo Que a…
La Reyna Del Inframundo Tres metros bajo tierra Por una mata hierba me echaron…
La San Marqueña ¡Wepa! ¡Wipi! Llegó Llegó papá con Lila Downs Y el grupo K…
La Sandunga Ay, sandunga Sandunga mamá, por Dios Sandunga no seas ingrat…
La Tequilera Borrachita de tequila Llevo siempre el alma mía Para v…
Las casas de madera Esta va para mi compadre El viento sopla Que frio hace afue…
Las Marmotas Podría hacer venganza si quisiera Podría lastimarte sin pied…
Las Nueve Esquinas Decían que no valgo nada Decían que no valgo nada Tomate tu…
Little Man big money don't count for a happy life little man with…
Los Caminos de la Vida Ichi kanu io Ta'u yo Yíí xáa keentaa yo ¡Epa! Los caminos …
Los Pollos Yo a los pollos les aviso para que corran la…
Malinche Vamonos a la laguna de Chacahua ¡A Bailar! Por el camino va…
Mano negra Ofrenda a Huitzilopochtli Templo mayor Hueso y dibujo Ando …
Mezcalito Brinda con el pensamiento Gotita lluvia de calor Mi culpado …
Mi Corazon Me Recuerda Mi corazón me recuerda que he de llorar por el tiempo…
Minimum Wage Traveled seven hundred miles Crossed the border to the Stat…
Misa Oaxaqueña Venimos a tu casa Con cantos de alegría Venimos a adorarte,…
Naila En una noche de luna Naila lloraba ante mí Ella me hablaba…
Nothing But The Truth What are the open plains but land to roam and…
Nueve Hierba Mujer de Dios Profeta de hierba Mujer de la edad del tiempo …
Nueve Viento Una culebra de nube, y una culebra de lluvia viene bajando…
Ofrenda Entre las nubes del cielo Hay un lugar escondido Es el valor…
Ojo de Culebra Tu cuerpo va cargando cadenas Cadenas de todos los tiempos C…
One Blood The tide of the west is rising With people from every…
Pa' Todo El Ano Soñé que te engañaba Con una paloma blanca Me desperté canta…
Palabras de Mujer Palabras de mujer Que yo escuché cerca de ti Junto de ti,…
Paloma Negra Ya me canso de llorar Y no amanece Ya no sé si…
Palomo Del Comalito La chula, la chulada de esta tierra Muele ma, muele masa…
Pecadora Y no te puedo sacar de la mente Ni de mi…
Peligrosa Dicen que yo soy peligrosa Que yo soy dolorosa Por que quier…
Penas Del Alma Entre copa y copa se acaba mi vida Llorando borracha tu…
Perfume de Gardenias Perfume de gardenias tiene tu boca, bellisimos destellos …
Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps You won't admit you love me and so How am I…
Perro Negro Por la calle Una Sombra Se dibuja el eco frio donde va…
Piensa en Mí Si tienes un hondo pesar Piensa en mí Si tienes ganas de…
Pinotepa Bonito Pinotepa No soy coplero y te estoy cantando Porque …
Pobre Changuita POBRE CHANGUITA No te hagas la loca Ni la interesante …
Puede Ser Vivo así, paso las noches sin dormir En la manera que…
Que Nadie Sepa Mi Sufrir Que nadie sepa mi sufrír No te asombres si te…
Quiero Verte Feliz No es que me valga madre la vida El dolor de…
Sabor a Mí Tanto tiempo disfrutamos de este amor Nuestras almas se acer…
Sale Sobrando Los hombres barbados vinieron por barco Y todos dijeron mi …
Seguiré Mi Viaje Hoy todo lo llenas tú Ya no soy nada en ti Y…
Ser Paloma Ni en mi sueño Ni mi madrugada Ya no mandas Ya no mandas…
Shake Away You know mama told me now You're a child on your…
Silent Thunder There's a blade of grass that's growing In the garden of…
Simuna Tú implorabas que fuera a verte a tu lecho enfermo, dulce…
Skeleton The land is the mother of a tender crop The corn…
Smoke How dark is the smoke that fall from the sky and…
Sodade Quem mostra' bo Ess caminho longe? Quem mostra' bo Ess camin…
Solamente Un Día Solamente un día Dame de tu vida Un día no es nada Solamente…
Son de Difuntos ¡Ahí viene la muerte! ¡Epa! Estaba sentada la parca Fumándo…
Son de Ejutla Ya llegaron los de Ejutla Con la alegría de sus sones Pa'…
Son del Chile Frito Yo tengo Yo tengo Ganas de comer taco de chile con cerveza C…
Soy Pescador Ora voy a comenzar A ver si puedo o no puedo, A…
Taco de Palabras ¡Arepa! ¡Humita! ¡Papusa! ¡Tortilla! Por mi raza, por mi ca…
Tengo Miedo de Quererte Tengo miedo de quererte Por la distancia que veo en tus…
Tiembla Herida que ya no se cura Porque dondequiera que yo voy Ahí…
tierra de luz (lyrics are written by Lila Downs why Paul Cohen) Tierra de…
Tirineni Tsitsiki Tirineni tsïtsïki Sera muy cierto Que tu eres naturalita Nos…
Tiringini Tsitsiki Tiringini tsitsiki Será muy cierto Que tu eres naturalita No…
tránsito Bajo el negro manto del humo Se abre un valle de…
Tren del Cielo Viajo por las nubes Voy llevando mi canción Vuelvo por los c…
Tu Cárcel Te vas por que quieres Te vas amor Si así lo quieres…
Tu Recuerdo Y Yo Estoy en el rincón de una cantina Oyendo una canción que…
Tus Pencas Deseo que vayas conmigo Y que me acompañes Deseo que tú te…
Un Mundo Raro Cuando te hablen de amor Y de ilusiones Y te…
Un Poco M Yucu ninu xian kumani Ini-ri jin-ro, kua'a kiti nchaka-ro Nu…
Una cruz de madera Una cruz de madera de la mas corriente Esto es lo…
Una Sangre La punta de oeste carga Gente de cualquier nación De China h…
Uno Muerte Ni iin, ni iin-yo ma kuu tin ni iin, ni iin-yo…
Urge Con mi dolor Causando penas voy vagando por ahí No hay una…
Válgame Dios Y es la verdad Querer así es un pecao Válgame Dios Que me…
Vámonos Que no somos Iguales dice la gente Que tu vida y mi…
Viborita A la orilla de la playa allá en la madrugada A…
Viene la muerte echando rasero Viene la muerte echando rasero Se lleva al joven, también al…
Xochipitzahua Xihualacan compañeros Xa paxalo ce María Timiyehualotzin, hu…
Xquenda Si te vas y me dejas, pequeña diosa a quien más ama…
Y para Qué Dejare que pase el tiempo Porque es sabio y es…
Yanahuari Nin Yeah, it's my life My own words I guess Have you ever…
Yo Envidio El Viento Yo envidio el viento Que susurra en tu oido Que…
Yo Ya Me Voy Yo ya me voy A morir a los desiertos Me voy del…
Yunu Yucu Ninu Yucu ninu xian Kumasi Ini-ri jin-ro, kua'a kiti nchaka-ro …
Zapata Se Queda Son las tres de la mañana, dicen que pena un…
Roy Lee Patterson
on La Cumbia Del Mole
Lila will be in Los Angeles at the Orpheum, November, 10th, 2022