How Natalia Lafourcade is writing a new chapter for Mexican music

After much than a decennary of loving her euphony from afar, I yet saw Natalia Lafourcade execute unrecorded successful Toluca aboriginal this period arsenic portion of her circuit for her medium “Cancionera.” To accidental it was a imagination travel existent would autumn short: the evening was intimate, theatrical and profoundly moving. It wasn’t conscionable a concert— it felt similar a one-woman play. Lafourcade performed each opus acoustically, accompanied lone by her guitar, weaving stories betwixt each piece.

Few artists consciousness arsenic woven into the cloth of modern Mexican euphony arsenic Natalia Lafourcade. With a vocation spanning much than 2 decades, she is not conscionable 1 of Mexico’s astir beloved voices but besides 1 of Latin America’s astir decorated and enduring songwriters. At 41, Lafourcade holds 4 Grammy Awards and 18 Latin Grammys — much than immoderate different pistillate successful history, adjacent edging retired Shakira.

Over the people of 23 years, she’s released 12 albums and countless songs that person go portion of Mexico’s corporate soundtrack. One standout is her mentation of “Nunca es Suficiente” with Los Ángeles Azules, which has racked up much than 2.2 cardinal views connected YouTube and inactive plays everyplace from taco stands to weddings, a decennary aft its release.

Lafourcade’s quiescent powerfulness resonates beyond Mexico too. Her 2017 NPR Tiny Desk Concert is 1 of the 12 most-watched of each time, a testament to the planetary scope of her intimate, soul-stirring music.

The making of a philharmonic icon

Born successful Mexico City and raised successful the lush, creator ambiance of Veracruz, Natalia Lafourcade was rather virtually surrounded by euphony from the beginning. Her begetter was a musician, and her mother, a classically trained pianist, developed the Macarsi teaching method, which combines philharmonic acquisition with idiosyncratic development. That doctrine became Natalia’s foundation.

Lafourcade attended euphony and creation schools passim her childhood, and by the property of 14, she joined a short-lived teen popular radical called Twist. Just 3 years later, successful 2002, she released her self-titled debut album. “En el 2000”, a playful, Y2K-era anthem from that record, became her breakout hit.

Lafourcade kicked disconnected the Cancionera circuit successful Xalapa, superior of her location authorities of Veracruz.

In the years that followed, Lafourcade leaned into collaboration, honing her dependable alongside chap musicians and releasing “Hu Hu Hu,” her 2nd solo album. But it was her 2012 tribute task to Agustín Lara, “Mujer Divina,” that genuinely drew maine in. This was the medium that made maine autumn successful emotion with Lafourcade’s music, and the 1 that revealed conscionable however timeless and touching her artistry could be.

Reimagining tradition

“Mujer Divina” marked a graceful departure from Lafourcade’s popular roots into the romanticist satellite of bolero. In honoring 1 of Mexico’s astir legendary 20th-century composers, she reimagined songs that had been cherished since the 1930s. With the assistance of different acclaimed musicians, Lafourcade brought caller beingness to Lara’s classics, mounting the code for a caller creator era— 1 grounded successful soulfulness and people tradition, wherever her soprano dependable soared.

What followed was a bid of critically acclaimed albums, including “Hasta la Raíz,” a folk-inspired and emotionally earthy grounds whose rubric way remains Lafourcade’s most-streamed opus connected Spotify, and the two-volume “Musas.” These projects, created successful collaboration with Los Macorinos — champion known arsenic Chavela Vargas’ backing band — paid homage to the richness of Latin American people music. Here, the vocalist recovered her signature sound: acoustic, timeless, reverent.

By 2018, Lafourcade’s prima had risen good beyond Mexico. That year, she performed astatine the 90th Academy Awards alongside Miguel and Gael García Bernal, singing “Remember Me” from Pixar’s “Coco,” which would spell connected to triumph the Oscar for Best Original Song.

Lafourcade has remained prolific successful caller years, releasing 2 volumes of “Un Canto por México” and aboriginal “De Todas las Flores” successful 2022— her archetypal medium of wholly archetypal euphony successful 7 years. She debuted the task astatine New York’s Carnegie Hall, accompanied with a publication and podcast exploring the album’s themes. Describing the album, Lafourcade called it “my salvation, my relief, the replanting of seeds.”

 “Cancionera” and a caller chapter

Natalia Lafourcade’s latest project, “Cancionera,” released earlier this year, feels similar her astir intimate offering yet— a spiritual unraveling, a emotion missive to Mexico’s past and possibly to the creator herself. Recorded wholly successful 1 instrumentality connected analog portion with 18 musicians, the medium echoes the warmth and imperfections of thing profoundly human. Its dependable is steeped successful the tone of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema and shaped by the reflective value of turning 40.

Lafourcade performs successful Mérida, Yucatán connected May 17.

“This medium is afloat of symbolism, inspired by the surrealism of Mexico and the values of our contented and iconography,” Lafourcade told the Associated Press successful April. “I wanted to grant the songs and the way of the cancioneras and cancioneros of life.”

When Lafourcade announced the Cancionera circuit successful February, determination was nary mode I couldn’t go. Although I hadn’t work astir the album’s inspirations beforehand, sitting successful Toluca’s Teatro Morelos it rapidly became wide that the amusement was built astir a character: her change ego, La Cancionera. Part Chavela Vargas, portion smoky mystic successful a mezcal-soaked cantina, this quality sang boleros and rancheras with aching, deliberate grace. Lafourcade called the show “el teatro de la canción”— theatre of opus — and that’s precisely what it was.

The evening unfolded similar a quiescent spell. “Cancionera” is not conscionable an album; it’s a portal. Whether you’ve been pursuing Lafourcade’s travel for years oregon are lone conscionable discovering her work, this task is simply a moving reminder of her devotion to Mexican music— and the enduring magic of a dependable that keeps uncovering caller ways to sing the soul.