Ana Lila Downs Sánchez (born 9 September 1968) is a Mexican singer-songwriter, actress, and anthropologist. 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.
Her first (independent) album, Ofrenda, was released in 1994. In 1999, Downs came to prominence with her debut studio album, La sandunga, which was a critical and commercial success. She achieved international success in 2001 with the album Border which emerged in the music scene of Mexico and Latin America in the early 2000s (decade). Downs's seventh album, Pecados y milagros (2011), topped album charts in most major markets and generated chart-topping world music albums. Her eighth album, "Balas y Chocolate", was released in 2015. "Salón Lágrimas y Deseo", her ninth album, came out in 2017.
Downs began performing in school, demonstrating her vocal ability with traditional music, Latin and American influences, and with her own original twist on dancing. Downs, a native Spanish speaker, also speaks fluent Mixtec and English. Downs through her activism has gone through great lengths to preserve the Mixtec language as well as many other Indigenous Mexican languages.
Influenced by Chavela Vargas, Mercedes Sosa, Lucha Villa, and Amparo Ochoa, Lila Downs is recognized for her diverse contributions to the music industry through her traditional and authentic fashion, the majority of which are based around Mexico's indigenous peoples' styles, cultures and heritages, which show through her performances and music videos. Her achievements include one Grammy Award and three Latin Grammy Awards.
Besides her musical career, she involves herself with humanitarian causes and political activism, especially dealing with issues of Latin America's indigenous population.
Early life
Lila Downs was born on 9 September 1968, in Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca, Mexico. She is the daughter of Anita Sánchez, a Mixtec cabaret singer and Allen Downs, a Scottish-American professor of art and cinematographer from Minnesota. From an early age Downs showed interest in music. At the age of eight she began singing rancheras and other traditional Mexican songs. She began her professional career singing with mariachis. At fourteen she moved to the United States with her parents. She studied voice in Los Angeles and learned English, which her father helped her to perfect. When she was 16, her father died, and she decided to return to her native town Tlaxiaco with her mother.
One day while she was working in a store in the Mixtec mountains, a man came in to ask her to translate his son's death certificate. She read that he had drowned trying to cross the border into the United States. This deeply affected her and has continued to her work. She talked about this in an NPR interview about her 2001 release entitled Border.
Although today Downs is proud of her origins there was a time when she felt shame regarding her Indigenous roots. "I was embarrassed to have Indian blood. I was embarrassed that my mother spoke her language in public." This led her on a path to find herself, which included dropping out of college, dyeing her hair blonde and following the band The Grateful Dead. After some time Downs found herself back in Oaxaca, a city in southern Mexico, working at her mother's auto parts store, where she met her future husband and musical collaborator, tenor saxophonist Paul Cohen.
Downs studied Anthropology at the University of Minnesota and voice in New York. Later she attended the Institute of Science and Arts of Oaxaca in Mexico to complete her studies.
At 25, after completing academic and music studies, Downs decided to return to Tlaxiaco. Paul Cohen always encouraged her musical ventures, and she joined a group percussion called Yodoyuxi's Cadets. Because Paul Cohen had business in the United States she began to live in both Minnesota and Oaxaca.
During her stay in Minnesota, Downs formed a group called La Trova Serrana which achieved great popularity among the Latin community within the United States, singing songs about the Zapotec values and culture. Upon her return to Mexico she started singing in bars, restaurants and clubs in the City of Oaxaca, as well as the city of Philadelphia and the state of California, always with the support of US saxophonist Paul Cohen. She received many positive critical reviews, which led to her decision to undertake an extensive tour of Mexico.
Career 1994–1996: First albums In 1994, Lila Downs independently made her first album, entitled Ofrenda. This was both a collection of traditional songs from Oaxaca and Mexico, and songs written by the singer with lyrics sung in Spanish, Mixtec and Zapotec (native languages of Oaxaca). The material was produced both independently and with the support of the Oaxacan Cultures Institute. Because this album was not a commercial success in LP or cassette, she never released a version on CD.
In 1996, Downs recorded a live session at a renowned café-bar of the City of Oaxaca. On this record Downs was accompanied by a set of well-known musicians who supported its interpretation of traditional themes, as well as country music and jazz. With this work Downs and her music became known in different parts of Mexico, and this was her first album to be released on CD. The album had a big impact, despite limited promotion and the fact that only a small number of copies were made. This CD is now out of print, and although not available as part of the official discography of Lila Downs, can be found in digital format.
1997–1999: La Sandunga In 1997, Lila Downs made a second recording, called "Traces", on which she performed material that was to be included in later albums such as La Sandunga, Tree of Life and Border. It is an extensive compilation of items in her traditional repertoire but, like its predecessor, had no commercial distribution, so this disc is also currently out of print.
It was not until 1999, when Downs signed with the label Narada Productions, that she achieved commercial success and made herself known internationally with the album La Sandunga. Recorded a year earlier, this material came to the forefront of Mexican music and her album was one of the first to merge the sounds of traditional music and modern rhythms as jazz, blues and bolero. The album was sung in Spanish and Mixtec, and was produced by Lila Downs and Paul Cohen with the support of Xquenda Cultural Association.Xquenda Productions "La Sandunga" by Lila Downs. Because of this success, Downs participated in the soundtrack of the Mexican film Green Stones and achieved great popularity in countries such as Mexico, United States, Spain, France, England and Germany, selling over 500,000 units worldwide.
1999–2000: Tree of Life/Yutu Tata
Downs's next album, Tree of Life, was released in 2000. With this album the fame of Downs continued to spread to other markets in England, Switzerland, Canada and especially the United States. This work found Downs turning to her indigenous past, and the album features pre-Hispanic sounds and instruments. Several of the songs on the album are sung in native Mexican languages such as Mixtec, Zapotec and Nahuatl. In October 2000, she began a two-month tour called the Tree of Life/Árbol de la vida, which included concerts in Latin America, Europe and the US. The tour began in Mexico and ended in Spain.
2001–2003: Border/La Linea (The Line) Border, released by EMI Music in 2001, was the first album by Downs to feature songs sung in English. The album was released simultaneously in the United States and Mexico. With this album Downs merged sounds from different genres such as traditional folk music, hip hop, rock and chilena. It included fifteen songs, eleven in Spanish, three in English and one in Mayan. The album received generally good reviews and placed seventh in the top charts of world music. It also stirred up controversy due to its frank discussion of immigration, Indigenous marginalization and the Acteal massacre.Lila Downs speaks in "The Line" about the killing of Acteal. This drew criticism, especially from politicians and the church.Castellanos, 2001; 74: "The interpretation of migration and marginalization by Lila Downs, of Oaxaca's "La Linea" cost her several instances of censorship."
The album's first single was released in Mexico, "Mi corazón me recuerda", a poem by Chiapas poet Jaime Sabines. Set to music, it achieved moderate success on the Mexican music charts. In Spain the song was called "La Llorona", in France the song was called "Corazoncito Tirano" and in the United States the song was called "Medley: Pastures of Plenty/This Land Is Your Land/Land" were released as singles. The latter incorporates two Woody Guthrie songs, "Pastures of Plenty" and "This Land is Your Land" as well as original lyrics by Downs in "Land".
2004–2006: Una Sangre/One Blood One Blood, one of Lila Downs's most successful albums, was released in April 2004, simultaneously in the United States, Spain, and Mexico. The lyrics on this album are about migration, discrimination and the case of Mexican human rights defender Digna Ochoa.In "Dignify" Downs talks about the lawyer Digna Ochoa. In addition to traditional songs such as "La Bamba", "Viborita", and "La Cucaracha", the album includes genres such as son jarocho, jazz, rock and folk. This album contains thirteen tracks, three in English, one in Triqui, one in Purepecha and eight in Spanish. Lyrics were authored by Lila Downs, Paul Cohen, Celso Duarte, and Jose Martí. In 2005 Lila Downs received the Grammy Latino in the category of "Best Album of World Music" for this album and reached the top of the charts in United States, Mexico, Spain, United Kingdom, Germany and France.
2006–2008: La Cantina, entre copa y copa ...
Lila Downs took approximately one and a half years to prepare this project, which was released in April 2006. This CD draws on Mexican ranchero songs and merges sounds such as pop, rock, norteño, cumbia and hip-hop. This CD contains fifteen tracks, of which twelve are traditional Mexican repertoire authored by Lila Downs, and includes a version in English of "La cumbia del mole", the song that to date is the most well-known work by the artist. "La cumbia del mole" refers to the preparation of Mexican dish and tradition in Oaxaca. This single managed to position itself among the top of the charts in Mexico, United States, Canada and United Kingdom.
In 2007, Downs published a CD with the greatest success in Spanish to date, containing songs from her previous albums La Sandunga, Tree of Life, Border/The Line, One Blood and La Cantina. It was entitled simply The Very Best of Lila Downs and was accompanied with a DVD containing thirteen tracks recorded live at a concert in Madrid, Spain.
2008–2009: Eye of the snake/Ojo de Culebra