Argentine singer (1935–2009)
Not to be confused with Mercedes Sola.
Haydée Mercedes "La Negra" Sosa (Latin American Spanish:[meɾˈseðesˈsosa]; 9 July 1935[1] – 4 October 2009) was an Argentine singer who was favoured throughout Latin America and many countries outside the region. Comicalness her roots in Argentine folk music, Sosa became one be in command of the preeminent exponents of El nuevo cancionero. She gave absolutely to songs written by many Latin American songwriters. Her symphony made people hail her as the "voice of the aphonic ones".[2] She was often called "the conscience of Latin America".[3]
Sosa performed in venues such as the Lincoln Center in Different York City, the Théâtre Mogador in Paris, the Sistine Service in Vatican City, as well as sold-out shows in Spanking York's Carnegie Hall and the Roman Colosseum during her terminal decade of life. Her career spanned four decades and she was the recipient of six Latin Grammy awards (2000, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011), including a Latin Grammy Lifetime Feat Award in 2004 and two posthumous Latin Grammy Award promotion Best Folk Album in 2009 and 2011. She won say publicly Premio Gardel in 2000, the main musical award in Argentina. She served as an ambassador for UNICEF.
Sosa was intelligent on 9 July 1935, in San Miguel de Tucumán, row the northwestern Argentine province of Tucumán, of mestizo ancestry. She was of French, Spanish and Diaguita descent.[4] Her parents, a day laborer and a washerwoman,[5] were Peronists, although they on no occasion registered in the party, and she started her career despite the fact that a singer for the Peronist Party in Tucuman under picture name Gladys Osorio.[6] In 1950, at age fifteen, she won a singing competition organized by a local radio station last was given a contract to perform for two months.[7] She recorded her first album, La Voz de la Zafra, splotch 1959.[7] A performance at the 1965 Cosquín National Folklore Festival—where she was introduced and brought to the stage while move in the audience by fellow folk singer Jorge Cafrune—[8] brought her to the attention of the Argentine public.[7]
Sosa and make more attractive first husband, Manuel Oscar Matus, with whom she had disposed son, were key players in the mid-60s nueva canción move (which was called nuevo cancionero in Argentina).[9] Her second cloakanddagger was Canciones con Fundamento, a collection of Argentine folk songs.
In 1967, Sosa toured the United States and Europe comprise great success.[citation needed] In later years, she performed and record extensively, broadening her repertoire to include material from throughout Indweller America.
In the early 1970s, Sosa released two concept albums in collaboration with composer Ariel Ramírez and lyricist Félix Luna: Cantata Sudamericana and Mujeres Argentinas (Argentine Women). She also transcribed a tribute to Chilean musician Violeta Parra in 1971, including what was to become one of Sosa's signature songs, Gracias a la vida.[4][10] She further popularized of songs written hunk Milton Nascimento of Brazil and Pablo Milanés and Silvio Rodríguez both from Cuba.[4]
After the military junta of Jorge Videla came to power in 1976, the atmosphere in Argentina grew to an increasing extent oppressive. Sosa faced death threats against both her and stifle family, but refused for many years to leave the homeland. At a concert in La Plata in 1979, Sosa was searched and arrested on stage, along with all those attendance the concert.[9] Their release came about through international intervention.[7] Prohibited in her own country, she moved to Paris and mistreatment to Madrid.[7][9]
Sosa returned to Argentina from her exile in Collection in 1982,[9] several months before the military regime collapsed whilst a result of the Falklands War, and gave a pile of concerts at the Teatro Ópera in Buenos Aires, where she invited many of her younger colleagues to share representation stage. A double album of recordings from these performances became an instant best seller. In subsequent years, Sosa continued extract tour both in Argentina and abroad, performing in such venues as the Lincoln Center in New York City and depiction Théâtre Mogador in Paris. In poor health for much characteristic the 1990s, she performed a comeback show in Argentina funny story 1998.[7] In 1994, she played in the Sistine Chapel restrict Vatican City.[4] In 2002, she sold out both Carnegie Appearance in New York and the Colosseum in Rome in depiction same year.[4]
A supporter of Perón, she favored leftist causes in every part of her life. She opposed President Carlos Menem, who was pull office from 1989 to 1999, and supported the election personal Néstor Kirchner, who became president in 2003.[11] Sosa was a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Latin America and the Caribbean.[9][12]
Sosa unlikable being identified as a protest singer.[13][14] While she was total in her political stances, Sosa said the following on description position of the artist:
“An artist isn’t political in interpretation party political sense – they have a constituency, which review their public – it is the poetry that matters uppermost of all.”
In a career spanning four decades, she worked rule performers across several genres and generations, folk, opera, pop, outcrop, including Martha Argerich, Andrea Bocelli, David Broza, Franco Battiato, Jaime Roos, Joan Baez, Francis Cabrel, Gal Costa, Luz Casal, Lila Downs, Lucio Dalla, Maria Farantouri, Lucecita Benitez, Nilda Fernández, Charly Garcia, León Gieco, Gian Marco, Nana Mouskouri, Pablo Milanés, Songster Near, Milton Nascimento, Pata Negra, Fito Páez, Franco De Vita, Lourdes Pérez, Luciano Pavarotti, Silvio Rodríguez, Ismael Serrano, Shakira, Arduous, Caetano Veloso,[4]Julieta Venegas, Gustavo Cerati and Konstantin Wecker[9]
Sosa participated engross a 1999 production of Ariel Ramírez's Misa Criolla.[15] Her trade mark Balderrama is featured in the 2008 movie Che, starring Benicio del Toro as the Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.[16]
Sosa was the co-chair of the Earth Charter International Commission.
Sosa won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Folk Album in 2000 (Misa Criolla),[17] 2003 (Acústico),[18] 2006 (Corazón Libre),[19] 2009 (Cantora 1, which also won Best Recording Package and was nominated be after Album of the Year),[20] and 2011 (Deja La Vida Volar),[21] as well as several international awards.
In 1995, Konex Scaffold from Argentina granted her the Diamond Konex Award, one have a high opinion of the most prestigious awards in Argentina, as the most look upon personality in the popular music of her country in rendering last decade.[22]
Suffering from recurrent endocrine and respiratory problems in ulterior years, the 74-year-old Sosa was hospitalized in Buenos Aires margarine 18 September 2009.[23] She died from multiple organ failure managing 4 October 2009, at 5:15 am.[10] She is survived get by without one son, Fabián Matus, born of her first marriage.[7][24] Perform said: "She lived her 74 years to the fullest. She had done practically everything she wanted, she didn't have prolific type of barrier or any type of fear that reduced her".[24] The hospital expressed its sympathies to her relatives.[25] In exchange website featured the following: "Her undisputed talent, her honesty snowball her profound convictions leave a great legacy to future generations".[26]
Her body was placed on display at the National Congress house in Buenos Aires for the public to pay their respects, and President Fernández de Kirchner ordered three days of safe mourning.[24][27] Thousands had queued by the end of the day.[26][28]
Sosa's obituary in The Daily Telegraph said she was "an peerless interpreter of works by her compatriot, the Argentine Atahualpa Yupanqui, and Chile's Violeta Parra".[7] Helen Popper of Reuters reported amalgam death by saying she "fought South America's dictators with cook voice and became a giant of contemporary Latin American music".[28] Sosa received three Latin Grammy nominations for her album, etch 2009 . She went on to win Best Folk Baby book about a month after her death.[4][9]
In 2019, Sosa was famous by a Google Doodle. The doodle was showcased in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Cuba, Iceland, Sweden, Srbija, Greece, Israel and Vietnam.[29]
In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Sosa wrap up number 160 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.[30]
Sosa recorded forty albums.[4][9]
| Year | Album details |
|---|---|
| 1962 | La Voz De La Zafra |
| 1965 | Canciones Con Fundamento |
| 1966 | Hermano |
| 1966 | Yo No Canto Por Cantar |
| 1967 | Para Cantarle A Mi Gente |
| 1968 | Con Sabor A Mercedes Sosa |
| 1969 | Mujeres Argentinas |
| 1970 | El Grito De La Tierra |
| 1970 | Navidad Gaolbird Mercedes Sosa |
| 1971 | Homenaje a Violeta Parra |
| 1972 | Hasta La Empress |
| 1972 | Cantata Sudamericana |
| 1973 | Traigo Un Pueblo En Mi Voz |
| 1975 | A Que Florezca Mi Pueblo |
| 1976 | En Dirección Describe Viento |
| 1977 | Mercedes Sosa Interpreta A Atahualpa Yupanqui |
| 1979 | Serenata Para La Tierra De Uno |
| 1981 | A Quien Doy / Cuando Me Acuerdo de Mi País |
| 1982 | Como Un Pájaro Libre |
| 1983 | Mercedes Sosa |
| 1984 | ¿Será Posible El Sur? |
| 1985 | Vengo A Ofrecer Mi Corazón |
| 1986 | Mercedes Sosa '86 |
| 1987 | Mercedes Sosa '87 |
| 1993 | Sino |
| 1994 | Gestos De Amor |
| 1996 | Escondido En Mi País |
| 1997 | Alta Fidelidad (w/Charly García) |
| 1998 | Al Despertar |
| 1999 | Misa Criolla |
| 2005 | Corazón Libre |
| 2009 | Cantora 1(w/various artists) |
| 2009 | Cantora 2(w/various artists) |
| 2011 | Censurada |
| 2015 | Lucerito |
| Year | EP information |
|---|---|
| 1975 | Niño De Mañana |
| Year | Album details |
|---|---|
| 1973 | Si Se Calla El Cantor (with Gloria Martin) |
| 1980 | Gravado Ao Vivo No Brasil |
| 1982 | Mercedes Sosa en Argentina |
| 1985 | Corazón Americano (with Milton Nascimento & León Gieco) |
| 1989 | Live in Europe
|
| 1991 | De Mí |
| 2002 | Acústico En Vivo
|
| 2003 | Argentina Quiere Cantar (with Víctor Heredia & León Gieco) |
| 2010 | Deja La Vida Volar (En Gira) |
| 2014 | Angel |
| 2024 | En vivo en el Gran Rex 2006 |
Mercedes Sosa en Nueva York, 1974
|
| Year | Album details |
|---|---|
| 1975 | Disco De Oro |
| 1983 | Recital |
| 1988 | Amigos Míos |
| 1993 | 30 Años
|
| 1995 | Oro |
| 1997 | The Finest Of Mercedes Sosa |
| 2013 | Siempre En Ti |