Elis Paprika (real name Erika Elizabeth Nogues; May 8, 1980) is an independent musician, singer, songwriter, and activist from Guadalajara, Mexico, active in Mexico's Rock scene since 2004. She has performed in important music venues such as Auditorio Nacional in México City (with Julieta Venegas)Elis Paprika’s performance as opening act for Julieta Venegas in Auditorio Nacional Mexico on Nov 24, 2006 in 2007, BelanovaElis Paprika’s performance as opening act for Belanova in Auditorio Nacional Mexico on Feb 15, 2009 in 2008, and Juan Gabriel in 2009.,Video of Elis Paprika’s performances in Auditorio Nacional with Juan Gabriel and Hidden Agenda in Hong Kong, as well as performing in international music festivals like Vive Latino in México City (2006, 2011, 2014), Playtime in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia, Meet in Beijing in China, and Altavoz in Medellín, Colombia. Elis has also performed in prestigious sessions like Live on KEXP. Elis Paprika has also performed internationally in North and South America, South East and East Asia, and Europe. She was named "Artist of the Month" on MTV Latin America in August 2006. Musicians in her band have varied throughout the years, and her current live and recording band is called The Black Pilgrims. Elis started her career in Guadalajara Jalisco, Mexico.
She has released 9 records to date, Give Me Love in 2006, EP2 in 2007, Express in 2009, Maldito in 2010, Animal in 2012, Adiós in 2013, Black & White in 2016, Venganza in 2019, Vengo del Futuro y No Hay Futuro in 2025. She also released singles like "Love Love Love" (2011), and "Now Girls Rule" (2014) which were not included in any of her previous records, but became part of Black & White,iTunes link to Black by Elis Paprika & The Black PilgrimsiTunes link to White by Elis Paprika & The Black Pilgrims and singles like "The End Of The World", and "Todo Se Está Cayendo" (both in 2021). She was part of the tribute álbum Amo al Divo de Juarez with her versión of "Hasta Que Te Conocí" by Juan Gabriel,Excelsior Newspaper article Elis Paprika's career, mentioning the release of this Juan Gabriel cover as well as the tribute album Tributo A: Ana José Nacho (Mecano) with her version of "No Tienes Nada Que Perder" by Mecano.
Elis Paprika is also the founder and director of Now Girls Rule, a feminist organisation for music and art.
Early life Elis was born Erika Elizabeth Nogues on May 8, 1980, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, being the youngest of three children. As a child, she trained as an Olympic gymnast and as a dancer. Her father died when she was 6. She moved to Texas with her family as a teenager in 1992 where she lived for one year. She and her family moved back to Guadalajara, and in 1994 Elis moved to Querétaro Mexico to her aunt's. She shortened her name to Elis, inspired by Elis Regina.
Learning music After moving to Querétaro, her aunt and uncle started her in music lessons, as all of her cousins studied music. Elis has been known to say that what she really wanted was to continue with her dancing in the hopes of becoming a professional dancer. She learned to play the Saxophone and music in general.Still, by a twist of fate some of her friends signed her up (unbeknownst to her) for a singing contest at school in Querétaro, where she ended up in second place. It was there she realized that she wanted a career as a singer. Elis then moved back to Guadalajara where, a year later, she started singing for the local band La Verdad No Importa, from where she was later fired because she "didn’t sing that good". After that rejection she took singing and guitar lessons in order to start writing her own songs. In 2000, after being in a couple of more local bands, she started formal music studies at CEDART for a couple of years. While studying there, she held a job doing press and PR for different concert promoters in Guadalajara.
Music career
2002–2003: First demos She interrupted her studies in 2002 and moved to London England for one year, where she began writing some of the songs she would later release as Elis Paprika. She held a job as a waitress during her stay in London. She returned to Guadalajara México in 2003 where she started a band called The Paprikas, with a local musician named Raul Velazquez (not to be confused with Raúl "Rul" Velazquez, who would later be Elis’ guitar player in The Black Pilgrims). At that point, people began referring to her as "Elis from the Paprikas" or "Elis Paprika", the name she later adopted. After a few tries with The Paprikas, Elis recorded a demo for the song "Sunny Day", working with Shaboomy (later guitar player for Azul Violeta), and Eric Diaz, guitar player and bass player respectively from the band The WaitressThe Waitress official band page from Guadalajara México. The Waitress was originally Elis’ first solo project. The name of the band was inspired by her time working as a waitress in London and Guadalajara before making music. Once she began to be recognized as "Elis Paprika" and making more music apart from her project, Elis left The Waitress. The other members of The Waitress continued without her.
2004: Elis Paprika In February 2004, Elis’ showed the demo of "Sunny Day", to Luke Castillo, who was then playing guitar and singing for the band Becker. Luke liked what he heard and they started working together, and this is where Elis Paprika was formally established, with Luke Castillo on Guitar, Richo Acosta on Guitar, Chumino on Bass, and Chicho (also playing with the band Plastiko), on Drums. With this lineup, Elis recorded the demo for the song "Give Me Love". Chicho left the band and Arnold Benz briefly became the drummer. They recorded demo versions of the songs "Bitch" and "Texas" with him. Arnold left the band and Richo Acosta called Willy Gonzalez, from another band he played in, to take over the drums. Later, Jorge "Gordo" Miramontes came in on bass after Chumino left the band. At this point, and with this lineup, they all decided to work as a band instead of Elis being a solo artist. Elis Paprika then became the name of the band. Their first live show as Elis Paprika took place in Guadalajara Jalisco México, on December 14, 2004, at the Hard Rock Café Guadalajara.
2005–2006: Give Me Love Elis Paprika began playing in several venues and quickly ascended in Guadalajara's rock scene. They played Sol Radiante Festival, Zapopum Festival, and the Hard Rock Live at the Hard Rock Café Guadalajara on several occasions. It was during one of these performances that people from Suave Records became interested in Elis Paprika, signing them in 2005. Under this label, Elis Paprika released the record Give Me Love in 2006, produced by Luke Castillo and Richo Acosta, and was licensed to Sony Music Mexico for its distribution in Mexico.
The first single, "Give Me Love", had a fast and big acceptance, and consequently Elis was invited to play at the Festival Vive Latino in 2006 and Corona Capital, also in 2006. In August of that same year, Elis Paprika was named "Band of the Month" on MTV. After this, MTV invited Elis Paprika to perform live for a recording of the program Alerta.
The song "No Puedo" was released as the second single in October 2006. In November 2006 Julieta Venegas invited Elis Paprika to play on her first Auditorio Nacional performance in Mexico City.
As all of this was taking place, contractual problems began to surface between Elis Paprika and her then record label Suave Records.
2007–2008: EP2, and Juan Gabriel tribute After the success of Give Me Love, problems between Elis Paprika and her then record label Suave Records increased to the point where the impulse the band had, came to a halt.
In early 2007, Elis requested Suave Records to release her, resulting in a lawsuit.
Luke Castillo decided to leave the band to concentrate on his other band Becker, and Ramón "Zacky" Velarde took his place in the band.
Elis recorded her voice for the original score of short film Jacinta, winner of the Festival de Cine de Morelia, from director Karla Castañeda, with music by Gilberto Cervantes. Jacinta was also shown at the Cannes Film Festival that same year.IMDb page for Jacinta Full Cast and Crew, mentioning Elis Paprika as singer for original scoreJacinta Short Film. Final credits mention Elis Paprika as "Vocal Interpretation"
Elis Paprika recorded EP2 in 2007, but this second record did not see a formal release due to the lawsuit with Suave Records. EP2 was released that same year, but only through free download on the Internet.
Early in 2008, Elis Paprika was invited to be a part of the Juan Gabriel tribute album called Amo al Divo de Juárez. For this, Elis recorded her own version of the Juan Gabriel song "Hasta Que Te Conocí". The record came out, with her version of the song as one of the official singles.
Elis Paprika played on December 8, 2006, for a Green Peace event in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in a campaign against illegal fishing in protected waters.Link to article by Proceso Magazine about this Greenpeace event in Puerto Vallarta
In late 2008 Elis and Suave Records settled their lawsuit, and the band was released from their contract with Suave Records, allowing Elis to concentrate on her band and performances. She signed under new management with Zepeda Bros.
2009: Express At the beginning of 2009, "Gordo" quit the band, and was replaced by Omar “La Doña” Gil on bass, who stayed with the band until early 2010.
Elis Paprika began 2009 with new live performances and writing new songs, and in May of that year, entered the studio to record the songs that would eventually become her album "Maldito", produced by Guido Laris. Originally intended to be released as two separate EPs, the songs were recorded at Montecristo Studios in Mexico City, but once they were ready, it wouldn't be released until some time later, due to differences with her management over the way to handle promotion as an independent release, or through a label.
That summer, Sony Music México invited Elis Paprika to be a part of Tributo A: Ana José Nacho (Mecano), a Mecano Tribute record, where she recorded her version of the song "No Tienes Nada Que Perder".
Juan Gabriel invited Elis to perform live with him on one of his concerts at Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City, to sing her version of "Hasta Que Te Conocí" live.Video of Elis Paprika performing with Juan Gabriel at Auditorio Nacional Mexico
After not being able to release the songs she recorded that May, Elis Paprika entered the studio once more in Guadalajara at Richo Acosta's studio to record new and previously unreleased songs. Express was released, produced by Richo Acosta, and licensed to EMI Music México for distribution, in October 2009, being this her first record to officially be promoted since Give Me Love in 2006. The first single from Express was "Tarde o Temprano".
2010–2011: Maldito After differences with her bandmates, Elis decided in early 2010, in the middle of promoting Express, not to continue working with the same musicians in her band. They went their separate ways and Elis went back to being a solo artist. This interrupted the promotion of Express.
Luke Castillo came back to play and support Elis on guitars, and had a major role in putting a band back together. Luke invited Paul Richards to play bass, and two other members of the band Aurum from Guadalajara, Vela and Luis Angel, to play guitar and drums respectively.
In May 2010, Elis moved to Mexico City in order to continue and better the handling of her career and to promote future plans. Working with Zepeda Bros. Elis decided to finally use the songs that had been recorded a year before, and since these songs had been on hold for over a year, it was decided to release them as one LP, instead of the two EPs they were originally meant for. It was because of all the time that these songs were on hold, that she named the LP Maldito, which in Spanish means "Cursed".