Grammy award winning Mexican-American singer-songwriter Lila Downs brings her unforgettable live show to the Barbican for a performance across Latin American and wider popular music traditions.

Lila Downs is one of the most influential artists in Latin America. Growing up in both Minnesota and Oaxaca, Mexico to a mother from the Mixtec indigenous group and a Scottish-American father, Lila’s music often focuses on social justice, giving a voice to migrants, indigenous people and women. She sings in Spanish, English and various Native American languages, such as Zapotec, Mixtec, Nahuatl, Maya and Purepecha.

Lila’s compositions combine genres and rhythms as diverse as Mexican rancheras and corridos, boleros, jazz, hip-hop, cumbia and North American folk music, to create a distinctive sound that has earned her international recognition on the world stage. She has collaborated with the likes of Mercedes Sosa, Norah Jones, Yo Yo Ma, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, as well as Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.
Adelitas” was the name given to women who took up weapons during the Mexican Revolution, fighting social injustice and in the process proving that being an armed revolutionary wasn’t an exclusively male occupation.

Support comes from London’s own, all female, Mariachi Las Adelitas UK. The mariachi classics are included in their repertoire, along with original songs and arrangements of well-known songs into an authentic mariachi style. Las Adelitas release their new single Huapanga Paloma on March 29.