Lila Downs became famous worldwide in 2002, when she sang with the Brazilian legend of music, the so called “Brazilian Bob Dylan”, Caetano Veloso the ballad of Elliot Goldenthal, ‘‘ Burn It Blue’’ in the film Frida.

      Whether singing in her mother tongue with a harrowing voice for ‘‘la Llorona’’, the legendary mother who drowned her children in a fit of madness and since then haunts over the centuries the river valleys of Mexico, or singing American jazz, legends of Mexico and Indians in their native languages, Lila Downs is rightly one of the biggest singers of our times achieving in a unique way a mixture of culture, languages, rhythms and voices with sociopolitical messages.

      Born in Mexico from a Mexican mother and an American father she grew up and studied in both countries voice and anthropology. It was however in Mexico where she began her career and “found the healing qualities of music’’ as she once said, having in the meantime gone through a long and painful journey of pursuit, therapy and self- knowledge, after her father died of a heart attack before his adolescent daughter who was alone in his house.

      “I question sometimes how I go musically in one direction without losing what is precious to me, which is the expression  of our times, the things that are in our collective consciousness, the power to unite.’’

Lila Downs on 26^th May, the Theatro Vrachon  ‘‘Melina Mercouri’’,  Athens.

Advance selling Ymitos festival, Metropolis, Ianos and i-ticket.gr

Tickets 30 Euro