Lhasa de Sela
Encyclopedia
Lhasa de Sela also known by the mononym Lhasa, was an American-born singer-songwriter who was raised in Mexico and the United States, and divided her adult life between Canada and France. Her first album, La Llorona
, went platinum in Canada and brought Lhasa a Félix Award
and a Juno Award
.
, of a Mexican father who lived in the U.S., Spanish instructor Alejandro "Alex" Sela, and an American mother who lived in Mexico, photographer and actress Alexandra Karam. Her first decade was spent criss-crossing the United States and Mexico, living and traveling in a converted school bus with her parents and siblings, home-schooled by her mother. Along with her family she listened to a wide variety of recordings including songs by Chilean musician Victor Jara
; as a young child she dreamed of marrying him some day, not knowing he had been killed.
At age 13 when her parents separated, Lhasa, her mother and her sisters settled in San Francisco where Lhasa started singing in a Greek
cafe
. In 1991 she traveled to Montreal
to visit her sisters who were students at l'École nationale de cirque
, the National Circus School of Canada, and she decided to make Montreal her home. She sang for five years in bars, collaborating with rock guitarist Yves Desrosiers. With Desrosiers she developed the material that eventually became her first album, La Llorona, released in 1997 with Desrosiers producing, arranging and accompanying. La Llorona, which mixes traditional Latin American songs with original songs, was strongly influenced by Mexican music, but also Klezmer music, Eastern European gypsy music, Middle-Eastern music and alternative rock
. The album was released by the Canadian independent record label Audiogram in Montreal, and brought her much success, including the Quebec Félix Award
in Canada for "Artiste québécois – musique du monde" in 1997 and a Canadian Juno Award
for Best Global Artist in 1998. The album was certified platinum in Canada. By 2003 it had sold 120,000 units in Canada, 330,000 in France, and 30,000 in the U.S.
After touring in Europe and North America for several years with Lilith Fair
, Lhasa left her singing career in 1999 and moved to France to join her sisters in Pocheros, a circus/theatre company. She eventually reached Marseilles
, where she started writing songs again. She then returned to Montreal to produce her second album, The Living Road
, which was released in 2003. While La Llorona had been entirely in Spanish, The Living Road included songs in English, French and Spanish.
A two-year tour followed the release of The Living Road, taking her and her group to 17 countries. Lhasa collaborated with a variety of other artists. She was a guest singer on the Tindersticks
' track "Sometimes It Hurts" off their Waiting for the Moon album, and later joined Tindersticks' singer Stuart Staples for a duet on the track "That Leaving Feeling", found on his Leaving Songs album. She also appeared as a guest on the albums of French singers Arthur H
and Jérôme Minière
, and the French gypsy music group Bratsch
. She received the BBC World Music Award for Best Artist of the Americas in 2005.
Lhasa's third album Lhasa
was released in April 2009 in Canada and Europe, with fewer musicians involved in the production. The next month in the U.S., she could also be heard on the title track of Patrick Watson
's album Wooden Arms
. After the Lhasa album was recorded but before it was released, Lhasa was diagnosed with breast cancer
. The album's closing song, "Anyone and Everyone", was described as prophetic by Jan Fairley of The Guardian – it was written from the viewpoint of one who knows death is near. Lhasa said that the song was about inner happiness and "feeling my feet in the earth, having a place in the world, of things taking care of themselves."
Because of her illness, Lhasa canceled a proposed world tour that would have begun in late 2009. She also set aside plans to make an album of songs written by Chileans Victor Jara
and Violeta Parra
.
devoted an episode of his CBC Radio One
program À Propos
, a weekly show about Quebec music, to a Lhasa tribute show.
A memorial concert honoring the life of Lhasa was announced for January 6, 2012, to be held at the Rialto Theatre
in Montreal. Musicians who collaborated with Lhasa are slated to perform, along with other artists such as Katie Moore
and Plants and Animals
.
La llorona (album)
La Llorona is the first album by Mexican American singer Lhasa de Sela, released in 1997 in Canada and 1998 elsewhere.-Track listing:All songs written by Lhasa de Sela except where noted.#"De cara a la pared"#"La Celestina"#"El desierto"...
, went platinum in Canada and brought Lhasa a Félix Award
Félix Award
The Félix Award is a music award, given on an annual basis to artists in the Canadian province of Quebec.The first Félix awards were presented on September 23, 1979, by the Association du disque, de l'industrie du spectacle québécois...
and a Juno Award
Juno Award
The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...
.
Biography
Lhasa was born in Big Indian, New YorkBig Indian, New York
Big Indian is a hamlet within the Town of Shandaken in Ulster County, New York, United States, located along State Route 28, within the Catskill Park 17 miles west of Woodstock. The Esopus Creek runs through the area, as Birch Creek feeds in from the north. Big Indian Hollow is located slightly to...
, of a Mexican father who lived in the U.S., Spanish instructor Alejandro "Alex" Sela, and an American mother who lived in Mexico, photographer and actress Alexandra Karam. Her first decade was spent criss-crossing the United States and Mexico, living and traveling in a converted school bus with her parents and siblings, home-schooled by her mother. Along with her family she listened to a wide variety of recordings including songs by Chilean musician Victor Jara
Víctor Jara
Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez was a Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter, political activist and member of the Communist Party of Chile...
; as a young child she dreamed of marrying him some day, not knowing he had been killed.
At age 13 when her parents separated, Lhasa, her mother and her sisters settled in San Francisco where Lhasa started singing in a Greek
Greek American
Greek Americans are Americans of Greek descent also described as Hellenic descent. According to the 2007 U.S. Census Bureau estimation, there were 1,380,088 people of Greek ancestry in the United States, while the State Department mentions that around 3,000,000 Americans claim to be of Greek descent...
cafe
Coffeehouse
A coffeehouse or coffee shop is an establishment which primarily serves prepared coffee or other hot beverages. It shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant, but it is different from a cafeteria. As the name suggests, coffeehouses focus on...
. In 1991 she traveled to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
to visit her sisters who were students at l'École nationale de cirque
École nationale de cirque
The National Circus School is a professional circus school located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is a school for higher education in arts; after the great schools of music, dance and theatre, the NCS also offers academic subjects at the secondary and college levels...
, the National Circus School of Canada, and she decided to make Montreal her home. She sang for five years in bars, collaborating with rock guitarist Yves Desrosiers. With Desrosiers she developed the material that eventually became her first album, La Llorona, released in 1997 with Desrosiers producing, arranging and accompanying. La Llorona, which mixes traditional Latin American songs with original songs, was strongly influenced by Mexican music, but also Klezmer music, Eastern European gypsy music, Middle-Eastern music and alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
. The album was released by the Canadian independent record label Audiogram in Montreal, and brought her much success, including the Quebec Félix Award
Félix Award
The Félix Award is a music award, given on an annual basis to artists in the Canadian province of Quebec.The first Félix awards were presented on September 23, 1979, by the Association du disque, de l'industrie du spectacle québécois...
in Canada for "Artiste québécois – musique du monde" in 1997 and a Canadian Juno Award
Juno Award
The Juno Awards are presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music...
for Best Global Artist in 1998. The album was certified platinum in Canada. By 2003 it had sold 120,000 units in Canada, 330,000 in France, and 30,000 in the U.S.
After touring in Europe and North America for several years with Lilith Fair
Lilith Fair
Lilith Fair was a concert tour and travelling music festival, founded by Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan, Nettwerk Music Group's Dan Fraser and Terry McBride, and New York talent agent Marty Diamond. It took place during the summers of 1997 to 1999, and was revived in the summer of 2010. It...
, Lhasa left her singing career in 1999 and moved to France to join her sisters in Pocheros, a circus/theatre company. She eventually reached Marseilles
Marseille
Marseille , known in antiquity as Massalia , is the second largest city in France, after Paris, with a population of 852,395 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Marseille extends beyond the city limits with a population of over 1,420,000 on an area of...
, where she started writing songs again. She then returned to Montreal to produce her second album, The Living Road
The Living Road
-Track listing:#"Con Toda Palabra" #"La Marée Haute" #"Anywhere on this Road"#"Abro la Ventana" #"J'arrive à la Ville" #"La Frontera" #"La Confession"...
, which was released in 2003. While La Llorona had been entirely in Spanish, The Living Road included songs in English, French and Spanish.
A two-year tour followed the release of The Living Road, taking her and her group to 17 countries. Lhasa collaborated with a variety of other artists. She was a guest singer on the Tindersticks
Tindersticks
Tindersticks are an Indie rock band from Nottingham, England formed in 1991. They released six albums before singer Stuart A. Staples took on a solo career. The band reunited briefly in 2006, but more permanently the following year...
' track "Sometimes It Hurts" off their Waiting for the Moon album, and later joined Tindersticks' singer Stuart Staples for a duet on the track "That Leaving Feeling", found on his Leaving Songs album. She also appeared as a guest on the albums of French singers Arthur H
Arthur H
Arthur Higelin , better known under his stage name Arthur H , is a pianist, songwriter and singer. He is best known in France for his live performances - four of his albums were recorded live - and remains relatively little-known in the English-speaking world.-Career:He is the son of the French...
and Jérôme Minière
Jérôme Minière
Jérôme Minière is a French instrumentalist and singer who was born in Orléans, France, and moved to Quebec. He is known for his fictional character Herri Kopter...
, and the French gypsy music group Bratsch
Bratsch (band)
Bratsch are a French-based music ensemble using influences from Roma music, klezmer, jazz and many diverse folk traditions. The group was formed in 1975 by guitarist Dan Gharibian and violinist Bruno Girard, and has released more than ten albums to date...
. She received the BBC World Music Award for Best Artist of the Americas in 2005.
Lhasa's third album Lhasa
Lhasa (album)
Lhasa is the third and final album by Mexican American folk singer Lhasa, released in 2009 on Warner Music. It is her only album entirely sung in English.The album was named a longlisted nominee for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize on June 15, 2009....
was released in April 2009 in Canada and Europe, with fewer musicians involved in the production. The next month in the U.S., she could also be heard on the title track of Patrick Watson
Patrick Watson (musician)
Patrick Watson is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and the name of the band which he fronts, whose blend of cabaret pop and classical music influences with indie rock has been compared to Rufus Wainwright, Andrew Bird, Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley and Pink Floyd for their experimental musicianship.-...
's album Wooden Arms
Wooden Arms
Wooden Arms is the third album by Patrick Watson, released April 28, 2009 on Secret City Records. The album's first single, "Tracy's Waters", was released on March 5 and the group performed a new song, "Beijing", on CBC Radio's Q radio show on April 6...
. After the Lhasa album was recorded but before it was released, Lhasa was diagnosed with breast cancer
Breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts or the lobules that supply the ducts with milk. Cancers originating from ducts are known as ductal carcinomas; those originating from lobules are known as lobular carcinomas...
. The album's closing song, "Anyone and Everyone", was described as prophetic by Jan Fairley of The Guardian – it was written from the viewpoint of one who knows death is near. Lhasa said that the song was about inner happiness and "feeling my feet in the earth, having a place in the world, of things taking care of themselves."
Because of her illness, Lhasa canceled a proposed world tour that would have begun in late 2009. She also set aside plans to make an album of songs written by Chileans Victor Jara
Víctor Jara
Víctor Lidio Jara Martínez was a Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter, political activist and member of the Communist Party of Chile...
and Violeta Parra
Violeta Parra
Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval was a notable Chilean composer, songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist...
.
Death
Following a 21-month-long battle with breast cancer, Lhasa died, age 37, on the evening of January 1, 2010, at her home in Montreal. She was survived by her partner Ryan Morey, by her parents, and by nine siblings. Her body was cremated. Two weeks later on January 16, Jim CorcoranJim Corcoran
Jim Corcoran is a Canadian singer-songwriter and broadcaster.-Biography:Jim Corcoran was born in Sherbrooke, but went to high school and his obtained his B.A. in Boston, Massachusetts in the late 1960s...
devoted an episode of his CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One
CBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...
program À Propos
À Propos
À Propos is a Canadian radio program that presents French language music for English audiences. Host Jim Corcoran is a Quebec musician who includes translations with featured songs. À Propos began in November 1988 and is currently broadcast Saturday nights on CBC Radio One and repeated on Sunday...
, a weekly show about Quebec music, to a Lhasa tribute show.
A memorial concert honoring the life of Lhasa was announced for January 6, 2012, to be held at the Rialto Theatre
Rialto Theatre (Montreal)
The Rialto Theatre is a former movie palace located on Park Avenue, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is designated as a National Historic Site of Canada....
in Montreal. Musicians who collaborated with Lhasa are slated to perform, along with other artists such as Katie Moore
Katie Moore
Katie Moore is a Canadian singer-songwriter based in Montreal, Quebec.She released her debut album, Only Thing Worse, in 2007, and followed up with Montebello in 2011....
and Plants and Animals
Plants and Animals
Plants and Animals are a Canadian indie-rock band from Montreal which comprises guitarist-vocalists Warren Spicer and Nic Basque and drummer-vocalist Matthew Woody Woodley. They often describe their music as post-classic rock. They are signed to Secret City Records...
.
Discography
- 1997 – La LloronaLa llorona (album)La Llorona is the first album by Mexican American singer Lhasa de Sela, released in 1997 in Canada and 1998 elsewhere.-Track listing:All songs written by Lhasa de Sela except where noted.#"De cara a la pared"#"La Celestina"#"El desierto"...
(Audiogram/Atlantic) - 2003 – The Living RoadThe Living Road-Track listing:#"Con Toda Palabra" #"La Marée Haute" #"Anywhere on this Road"#"Abro la Ventana" #"J'arrive à la Ville" #"La Frontera" #"La Confession"...
(Audiogram/Nettwerk) - 2009 – LhasaLhasa (album)Lhasa is the third and final album by Mexican American folk singer Lhasa, released in 2009 on Warner Music. It is her only album entirely sung in English.The album was named a longlisted nominee for the 2009 Polaris Music Prize on June 15, 2009....
(Nettwerk)
Filmography
- 1997 – El Desierto
- 2005 – Con toda palabra
- 2009 – Rising
- 2009 - Cold Souls