Nueva canción is a movement and genre within Latin American

Latin American music

Latin American music, found within Central and South America, is a series of musical styles and genres that mixes influences from Spanish, African and indigenous sources, that has recently become very famous in the US.-Argentina:...

 and Iberia

Iberia

The name Iberia refers to three historical regions of the old world:* Iberian Peninsula, in Southwest Europe, location of modern-day Portugal and Spain** Prehistoric Iberia...

n music of folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

, folk-inspired music and socially committed music. Nueva cancion is widely recognized to have played a powerful role in the social upheavals in Portugal, Spain and Latin America during the 1970s and 1980s.

Nueva cancion first surfaced during the 1960s as "The Chilean New Song" in Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

. The musical style emerged shortly afterwards in Spain and other areas of Latin America where it came to be known under similar names. Nueva canción renewed traditional Latin American folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

, and was soon associated with revolutionary movements, the Latin American New Left

New Left

The New Left was a term used mainly in the United Kingdom and United States in reference to activists, educators, agitators and others in the 1960s and 1970s who sought to implement a broad range of reforms, in contrast to earlier leftist or Marxist movements that had taken a more vanguardist...

, Liberation Theology

Liberation theology

Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...

, hippie

Hippie

The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...

 and human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 movements due to political lyrics. It would gain great popularity throughout Latin America

Latin America

Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...

, and is regarded as a precursor to Rock en español

Rock en Español

Rock en español is the Spanish-language rock music. While the term is used widely in English, it is used in Spanish mainly to distinguish such music from "Anglo rock." It is a style of rock music that developed in Latin American countries and Latino communities, along with other genres like...

.

Nueva canción musicians often faced censorship, exile, forceful disappearances and even torture by right-wing military dictatorship

Military dictatorship

A military dictatorship is a form of government where in the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....

s, as in Francoist Spain, Pinochet's Chile

Chile under Pinochet

Chile was ruled by a military dictatorship headed by Augusto Pinochet from 1973 when Salvador Allende was overthrown in a coup d'etat until 1990 when the Chilean transition to democracy began. The authoritarian military government was characterized by systematic suppression of political parties and...

 and in Videla and Galtireri's Argentina

National Reorganization Process

The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...

.

Due to Nueva canción songs' strongly political messages, some of them have been used in recent political campaigns, the Orange Revolution

Orange Revolution

The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter...

, which used Violeta Parra

Violeta Parra

Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval was a notable Chilean composer, songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist...

's Gracias a la vida

Gracias a la Vida

"Gracias a la vida" is the name of a song composed and first performed by Chilean musician Violeta Parra, one of the artists who set the basis for the movement known as Nueva Canción...

. Nueva canción has become part of the Latin American and Iberian musical canon but is no longer a mainstream genre, and has given way to other genres, particularly Rock en español

Rock en Español

Rock en español is the Spanish-language rock music. While the term is used widely in English, it is used in Spanish mainly to distinguish such music from "Anglo rock." It is a style of rock music that developed in Latin American countries and Latino communities, along with other genres like...

.

Characteristics

"La Nueva Canción" also known as the "New Song Movement" or "Trova" is a type of music which is committed to social good. Its musical and lyrical vernacular is rooted in the popular classes and often uses a popularly understood style of satire to maneuver within certain political spaces. characteristically talk about poverty

Poverty

Poverty is the lack of a certain amount of material possessions or money. Absolute poverty or destitution is inability to afford basic human needs, which commonly includes clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. About 1.7 billion people are estimated to live...

, empowerment, imperialism

Imperialism

Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...

, democracy

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

, human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

, and religion

Religion

Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...

. There are some hundreds of songs with influences from British and American pop rock that was popular with college youths.

Nueva canción largely draws upon Andean music

Andean music

Andean music comes from the general area inhabited by Quechuas, Aymaras and other peoples that lived roughly in the area of the Inca Empire prior to European contact. It includes folklore music of parts of Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Venezuela...

, Música negra

Música negra

Música negra is a type of Latin American music initially developed by black slaves in South America, in particular Peru, where it is known as música criolla. Música negra's influences are largely West African music and Spanish music. Notable artists and groups include Lucila Campos, Pepe Vásquez,...

, Spanish music, Cuban music and other Latin American folklore. One of the most important sources for nueva canción is Chilean cueca

Cueca

Cueca is a family of musical styles and associated dances from Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina. In Chile, the cueca holds the status of national dance, where it was officially selected on September 18, 1979.- Origins :...

, a guitar based rural song-form.

The '73 Chilean coup affected the genre's growth in Chile, the country where it was the most popular, because the whole musical movement was forced to go underground. During the days of the coup, Víctor 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...

, a well known singer, songwriter and maybe the most popular figure of Nueva Canción, was tortured and killed by the new rightist military regime under General Augusto Pinochet

Augusto Pinochet

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...

. Other musicians such as Patricio Manns and groups, such as Inti-Illimani

Inti-Illimani

Inti-Illimani is an instrumental and vocal Latin American folk music ensemble from Chile. The group was formed in 1967 by a group of university students and it acquired widespread popularity in Chile for their song Venceremos which became the anthem of the Popular Unity government of Salvador...

 and Quilapayún

Quilapayún

Quilapayún are an instrumental and vocal folk music group from Chile and among the longest lasting and most influential exponents of the Nueva Canción Chilena movement. Formed in Chile during the mid-1960s, the group became inseparable with the revolution that occurred in the popular music of the...

, found safety outside the country. The military government under General Pinochet ruled until 1989 and went as far as to ban many traditional Andean instruments, in order to suppress the Nueva Canción movement. Following the deposition of Pinochet, the Estadio Chile

Estadio Víctor Jara

Estadio Víctor Jara is the name of the former Estadio Chile, or Chile Stadium, in Santiago, Chile. The multi-use sports complex was renamed as a memorial to folk singer Víctor Jara, who was killed there, during the Chilean coup of 1973. It has a total capacity for an audience of 4,500 persons...

 in Santiago de Chile where Víctor Jara was murdered bears his name.

Most songs feature the guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

, and often the quena

Quena

The quena is the traditional flute of the Andes. Usually made of bamboo or wood, it has 6 finger holes and one thumb hole and is open on both ends. To produce sound, the player closes the top end of the pipe with the flesh between his chin and lower lip, and blows a stream of air downward, along...

, zampoña, charango

Charango

The charango is a small Andean stringed instrument of the lute family, 66 cm long, traditionally made with the shell of the back of an armadillo. Primarily played in traditional Andean music, and is sometimes used by other Latin American musicians. Many contemporary charangos are now made with...

 or cajón

Cajón

A cajón is a box-shaped percussion instrument originally from Peru, played by slapping the front face with the hands.-Origins and evolution:...

. The lyrics are typically in Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, with some indigenous or local words mixed in.

While Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 has produced the largest number of Nueva Canción artists, its popularity has been great in almost all Spanish speaking Latin American countries, and it enjoyed some popularity in Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 during the 1970s, where it was initially fueled by the political oppression of the Franquist regime, see Nova Canco

Nova Cançó

The Nova Cançó was an artistic movement that promoted Catalan music in Francoist Spain. The movement sought to normalize use of the Catalan language in popular music and denounced the injustices of the Franco regime. Musically, it created a new genre, with roots in the French Nouvelle Chanson...

.

1960s

Nueva canción was first identified under its current name in the 1960s in Chile. That movement was pioneered by Violeta Parra

Violeta Parra

Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval was a notable Chilean composer, songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist...

 and 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...

 among others. In Argentina Mercedes Sosa

Mercedes Sosa

Haydée Mercedes Sosa, known as La Negra, was an Argentine singer who was popular throughout South America and some countries outside the continent. With her roots in Argentine folk music, Sosa became one of the preeminent exponents of nueva canción. She gave voice to songs written by both...

 became a prominent exponent of the musical style in the 1960s, although her first album was recorded in 1959. In Cuba Silvio Rodríguez

Silvio Rodríguez

Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez is a Cuban musician, and a leader of the nueva trova movement.He is considered Cuba's best known folk singer and known for his highly eloquent and symbolic lyrics. Many of his songs have become classics in Latin American music, such as Ojalá, Playa Girón, Unicornio and...

, Pablo Milanes

Pablo Milanés

Pablo Milanés Arias is a Cuban singer-songwriter and guitar player. He studied at a conservatory in Havana. He is considered one of the founders of the Cuban nueva trova, along with Silvio Rodríguez and Noel Nicola...

 and Noel Nicola rose as the foremost figures of the movement in the late 1960s.

In Spain from 1965 onwards Joan Manuel Serrat

Joan Manuel Serrat

Joan Manuel Serrat i Teresa is a Catalan Spanish singer-songwriter.Serrat is considered one of the most important figures of modern, popular music in both the Spanish and Catalan languages...

 were among the first musicians embrace the movement. In the Eurovision Song Contest 1968

Eurovision Song Contest 1968

The Eurovision Song Contest 1968 was the 13th Eurovision Song Contest. The contest was won by the Spanish song "La, la, la", performed by Massiel....

 Serrat attempted to sing in Catalan

Catalan language

Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...

 instead of Spanish which led him to be became banned from Spanish radio for a long period.

1970s

During the 1970s Nueva canción musicians and music reached their height of popularity. While Spanish Nueva canción musicians with the fall of the Franco regime finally overcame censorship in the late 1970s musicians from the Southern Cone

Southern Cone

Southern Cone is a geographic region composed of the southernmost areas of South America, south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Although geographically this includes part of Southern and Southeast of Brazil, in terms of political geography the Southern cone has traditionally comprised Argentina,...

 faced severe censorship and even exile and death by the ruling right-wing military juntas. In 1971 Serrat participated for a second time in the Viña del Mar International Song Festival

Viña del Mar International Song Festival

The Viña del Mar International Song Festival is a music festival held annually during February since 1960 in Viña del Mar, Chile. It is considered the most important musical event in Latin America....

, this time giving a free concert in favor of the Unidad Popular government in Chile. The Unidad Popular government had enormous support among Nueva canción musicians who composed the campaign song Poder Popular

Poder Popular

Poder Popular may refer to:*Poder Popular , a form of workers democracy or political power that has sporadically surfaced in modern Chilean history*People's Power , a political movement in Colombia founded in 1981...

 for the presidential election of 1970

Chilean presidential election, 1970

A presidential election was held in Chile on 4 September 1970. A narrow plurality was secured by Salvador Allende, the candidate of the Popular Unity coalition of leftist parties...

 and recorded El pueblo unido jamás será vencido

El pueblo unido jamás será vencido

"¡El pueblo unido, jamás será vencido!" is one of the most internationally renowned songs of the Nueva Cancion Chilena movement. The music of the song was composed by Sergio Ortega and the text written by Quilapayún...

 in June 1973.

The 1973 Chilean coup d'etat marked a break point in the history of Nueva canción, 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...

 was murdered by elements of the military, Inti-Illimani

Inti-Illimani

Inti-Illimani is an instrumental and vocal Latin American folk music ensemble from Chile. The group was formed in 1967 by a group of university students and it acquired widespread popularity in Chile for their song Venceremos which became the anthem of the Popular Unity government of Salvador...

, Quilapayún

Quilapayún

Quilapayún are an instrumental and vocal folk music group from Chile and among the longest lasting and most influential exponents of the Nueva Canción Chilena movement. Formed in Chile during the mid-1960s, the group became inseparable with the revolution that occurred in the popular music of the...

 and Patricio Manns

Patricio Manns

Patricio Manns is a Chilean composer, author, writer, and journalist.-Infancy and youth:Patricio Manns was born in the rural town of Nacimiento, in the south of Chile on 3 August 1937. He is the son of a primary school teacher and an agricultural engineer of German descent...

 went into exile and most Nueva canción music outlawed. Joan Manuel Serrat

Joan Manuel Serrat

Joan Manuel Serrat i Teresa is a Catalan Spanish singer-songwriter.Serrat is considered one of the most important figures of modern, popular music in both the Spanish and Catalan languages...

 and Silvio Rodríguez

Silvio Rodríguez

Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez is a Cuban musician, and a leader of the nueva trova movement.He is considered Cuba's best known folk singer and known for his highly eloquent and symbolic lyrics. Many of his songs have become classics in Latin American music, such as Ojalá, Playa Girón, Unicornio and...

 would not play in Chile until the return of democracy in 1990.

After the military junta

National Reorganization Process

The National Reorganization Process was the name used by its leaders for the military government that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. In Argentina it is often known simply as la última junta militar or la última dictadura , because several of them existed throughout its history.The Argentine...

 of Jorge Videla came to power in 1976, the atmosphere in Argentina grew increasingly oppressive. At a concert in La Plata

La Plata

La Plata is the capital city of the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and of La Plata partido. According to the , the city proper has a population of 574,369 and its metropolitan area has 694,253 inhabitants....

 in 1979, Sosa was searched and arrested on stage, along with the attending crowd. Their release came about through international intervention. Banned in her own country, she moved to Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 and then to Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

.

1980s

During the 80s, as countries like Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil returned to democracy, many bands would return to their countries. In the case of Chile, however, more groups would continue to go into exile, such as Illapu

Illapu

Illapu , are a Chilean folk and andean musical ensemble that was formed in 1971 in Antofagasta, in northern Chile, by the brothers José Miguel, Jaime, Andrés and Roberto Márquez Bugueño. A later addition to the group was Osvaldo Torres. Illapu comes from the Quechua word meaning "Lightning Bolt"....

 who left Chile in 1981.

The spread of "new" Caribbean styles like cumbia

Cumbia

Cumbia is a music genre popular across Latin America. The cumbia originated in the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where it is associated with an eponymous dance and has since spread as far as Mexico and Argentina...

 and merengue

Merengue music

Merengue is a type of music and dance from the Dominican Republic. It is popular in the Dominican Republic and all over Latin America. Its name is Spanish, taken from the name of the meringue, a dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar...

 and the rise of Spanish language rock

Rock en Español

Rock en español is the Spanish-language rock music. While the term is used widely in English, it is used in Spanish mainly to distinguish such music from "Anglo rock." It is a style of rock music that developed in Latin American countries and Latino communities, along with other genres like...

 in the 80s would not help to improve Nueva canción popularity during the 80s. However, Nueva canción would remain popular in the internal conflict-plagued Central America

Central America

Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...

 and in the long-lived military dictatorship

Military dictatorship

A military dictatorship is a form of government where in the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....

s of Chile and Paraguay.

While countries like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay were dictatorships that censored elements of Nueva canción in in the late 1970s and early 1980s the Sandinista movement that rose to power with the Nicaraguan Revolution

Nicaraguan Revolution

The Nicaraguan Revolution encompasses the rising opposition to the Somoza dictatorship in the 1960s and 1970s, the campaign led by the Sandinista National Liberation Front which led to the violent ousting of that dictatorship in 1979, and the...

 in 1979 welcomed Nueva canción, and several artist gave support to the movement like Mercedes Sosa

Mercedes Sosa

Haydée Mercedes Sosa, known as La Negra, was an Argentine singer who was popular throughout South America and some countries outside the continent. With her roots in Argentine folk music, Sosa became one of the preeminent exponents of nueva canción. She gave voice to songs written by both...

 and Silvio Rodríguez

Silvio Rodríguez

Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez is a Cuban musician, and a leader of the nueva trova movement.He is considered Cuba's best known folk singer and known for his highly eloquent and symbolic lyrics. Many of his songs have become classics in Latin American music, such as Ojalá, Playa Girón, Unicornio and...

 who played in the Abril en Nicaragua concert in 1983.

During the 80s even the protest music niche of Nueva canción would be invaded by bands from other genres like punk-inspired Los Prisioneros

Los Prisioneros

Los Prisioneros was a chilean rock band formed in San Miguel, Santiago, Chile in 1982. They began as a local band during the early 1980s, playing small shows in their neighborhood and high school...

, although Latin American music would in general move away from political topics.

Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

 - Nuevo Cancionero

• Mercedes Sosa
  Mercedes Sosa
  Haydée Mercedes Sosa, known as La Negra, was an Argentine singer who was popular throughout South America and some countries outside the continent. With her roots in Argentine folk music, Sosa became one of the preeminent exponents of nueva canción. She gave voice to songs written by both...
  
  
• Atahualpa Yupanqui
  Atahualpa Yupanqui
  Atahualpa Yupanqui was an Argentine singer, songwriter, guitarist, and writer. He is considered the most important Argentine folk musician of the 20th century....
  
  
• Leon Gieco
  León Gieco
  Raúl Alberto Antonio Gieco, better known as León Gieco is a pop-folk music composer and interpreter. He is known for mixing popular folkloric genres with Argentine rock, and for lyrics with social and political connotations...
  
  
• Víctor Heredia
  Victor Heredia
  Víctor Heredia is an Argentine singer songwriter. Author of Taki Ongoy, a symphonic work about Taki Unquy, a millenarian movement against the Spanish conquest.-Biography:...
  
  
• Carlos Portela
• Armando Tejada Gómez
• César Isella
  César Isella
  Cesar Isella , argentinian singer and songwriter of folk music. He joined Los Fronterizos from 1956 to 1966, was one of the main figures of the "Movement of the New Songbook", and in the 1990s he discovered and sponsored the singer Soledad Pastorutti...
  
  
• Quinteto Tiempo

Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

• Negro y Blanco
• Raul Ybarnegaray
• Quinbando
• Entre dos aguas
• La trova
• Animal de ciudad
• Rodrigo Rojas
• Sergio Antezana
• Luis Rico
• Jenny Cardenas

Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 - Tropicalismo

Tropicalismo

Tropicália, also known as Tropicalismo, is a Brazilian art movement that arose in the late 1960s and encompassed theatre, poetry, and music, among other forms. Tropicália was influenced by poesia concreta , a genre of Brazilian avant-garde poetry embodied in the works of Augusto de Campos, Haroldo...

 and Música Popular Brasileira

Música Popular Brasileira

Música Popular Brasileira or MPB designates a trend in post-Bossa Nova urban popular music. It is not a discrete genre but rather a constellation that combines original songwriting and updated versions of traditional Brazilian urban music styles like samba and samba-canção with contemporary...

• Geraldo Vandré
  Geraldo Vandré
  Geraldo Vandré , is a Brazilian singer, composer and guitar player.In 1966 his song Disparada , interpreted by Jair Rodrigues, was a success at the Record Festival...
  
  
• Chico Buarque
  Chico Buarque
  Francisco Buarque de Hollanda , popularly known as Chico Buarque , is a singer, guitarist, composer, dramatist, writer and poet...
  
  
• Gilberto Gil
  Gilberto Gil
  Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira , better known as Gilberto Gil or , is a Brazilian singer, guitarist, and songwriter, known for both his musical innovation and political commitment...
  
  
• Caetano Veloso
  Caetano Veloso
  Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso , better known as Caetano Veloso, is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo which encompassed theatre, poetry and music in the 1960s,...
  
  
• Gonzaguinha
  Gonzaguinha
  Luiz Gonzaga do Nascimento Júnior , better known as Gonzaguinha, was a noted Brazilian singer and composer. He was born in Rio de Janeiro and he was the son of Luiz Gonzaga , the "king of baião"...
  
  
• Os Mutantes
  Os Mutantes
  Os Mutantes ) are an influential Brazilian psychedelic rock band that were linked with the Tropicália movement of the late 1960s. It was formed by two brothers and a vocalist, but has gone through numerous personnel changes throughout its existence...
  
  
• Tom Zé
  Tom Zé
  Tom Zé is a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who was influential in the Tropicália movement of 1960s Brazil. After the peak of the Tropicália period, Zé went into relative obscurity: it was only in the 1990s, when the musician and label head David Byrne discovered an album recorded...
  
  
• Gaudêncio Thiago de Mello

Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

• Pedro Guerra
  Pedro Guerra
  Pedro Manuel Guerra Mansito is a Spanish singer-songwriter.- Biography :Guerra is the son of Pedro Guerra Cabrera the first President of the Canarian parliament....
  
  
• Taburiente
• Taller Canario
• Caco Senante
• Manolo Almeida/Nueva Semilla

Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

• Rolando Alarcón
  Rolando Alarcón
  Rolando Alarcón Soto was a teacher, folklorist, soloist and composer living in Chile. He became a national-known figure in his homecountry due to his work as a musician, and at his funeral, even the president, Salvador Allende, expressed his regrets....
  
  
• Aparcoa
• Payo Grondona
• Illapu
  Illapu
  Illapu , are a Chilean folk and andean musical ensemble that was formed in 1971 in Antofagasta, in northern Chile, by the brothers José Miguel, Jaime, Andrés and Roberto Márquez Bugueño. A later addition to the group was Osvaldo Torres. Illapu comes from the Quechua word meaning "Lightning Bolt"....
  
  
• Inti-Illimani
  Inti-Illimani
  Inti-Illimani is an instrumental and vocal Latin American folk music ensemble from Chile. The group was formed in 1967 by a group of university students and it acquired widespread popularity in Chile for their song Venceremos which became the anthem of the Popular Unity government of Salvador...
  
  
• Víctor 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...
  
  
• Los Jaivas
  Los Jaivas
  Los Jaivas are a Chilean musical group who perform in folk, rock, and progressive rock styles.-History:Los Jaivas appeared in Chilean music in 1963 as a progressive-rock-andino group, mixing rock with South American ancestral music...
  
  
• Patricio Manns
  Patricio Manns
  Patricio Manns is a Chilean composer, author, writer, and journalist.-Infancy and youth:Patricio Manns was born in the rural town of Nacimiento, in the south of Chile on 3 August 1937. He is the son of a primary school teacher and an agricultural engineer of German descent...
  
  
• Julio Numhauser
  Julio Numhauser
  Julio Numhauser is a Chilean musician of the Nueva Canción-movement. He founded the folk music group Quilapayún in 1965 together with the brothers, Julio Carrasco and Eduardo Carrasco, where he stayed until 1967, and he later founded another folk music group, Amerindios, together with Mario...
  
  
• Sergio Ortega
  Sergio Ortega
  Sergio Ortega was a Chilean composer and pianist.- Biography :Ortega was born in Antofagasta, Chile. He studied composition with Roberto Falabella and with Gustavo Becerra-Schmidt in the National Conservatory at the Universidad de Chile...
  
  
• Ángel Parra
  Ángel Parra
  Ángel Cereceda Parra is a Chilean singer and songwriter, son of Violeta Parra, notable Chilean folklorist and brother of Isabel Parra. He travels abroad helping to maintain the Nueva Canción tradition in Chilean expatriate communities in Europe, North America, and Australia. His son -also named...
  
  
• Isabel Parra
  Isabel Parra
  Isabel Parra is a famous Chilean singer-songwriter and interpreter of Latin American musical folklore.Isabel Parra was born in Chile in 1939 and began her career in music at the age of 13 when she made her first recording with her world-renowned mother, the folklorist Violeta Parra...
  
  
• Violeta Parra
  Violeta Parra
  Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval was a notable Chilean composer, songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist...
  
  
• Héctor Pavez
• Quilapayún
  Quilapayún
  Quilapayún are an instrumental and vocal folk music group from Chile and among the longest lasting and most influential exponents of the Nueva Canción Chilena movement. Formed in Chile during the mid-1960s, the group became inseparable with the revolution that occurred in the popular music of the...
  
  
• Osvaldo "Gitano" Rodriguez
• Horacio Salinas
  Horacio Salinas
  Horacio Salinas is a Chilean guitarist and composer. He is cofounder and musical director of the Chilean group Inti Illimani Historico. He has a huge repertory of compositions that involves folk, andean music, protest music, world music, fusion, Contemporary classical music and many latin american...
  
  
• Schwenke & Nilo
• Jose Luis Sepulveda
• Jose Séves
• Tiemponuevo
• Francisco Villa Castro
• Grupo Raiz
• Amerindios
  Amerindios
  Amerindios was a folk music group from Chile which was active in the years between 1969 and 1973. It was one of the many artists of the Nueva Canción-movement, but unlike many other Nueva Canción-artists, Amerindios also incorporated instruments such as electric guitars. The group was formed in...
  
  
• Silvia Urbina
  Silvia Urbina
  Silvia Urbina is a Chilean singer and researcher in folkloric music of Chile. She started her career as a musician in 1955 as one of the founders of the successful group, Cuncumén, and after leaving the group in 1961, she founded another group, Cuncumenitos, dedicated to teach Chilean children...
  
  

El Salvador

El Salvador

El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...

• Cutumay Camones
• Banda Tepehuani
• Yolocamba Ita
• Los Torogoces de Morazan
• Luis Lopez y el Grupo Anastacio Aquino

Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

• Mango
• Grupo Camino, Escuela Normal
• Kin-Lalat
• Alejandro Cotí
• Círculo de Cantautores
• Alejandro Melgar
• Tito Medina
• César Dávila
• José Chamalé
• Miguel Sisay
• Fernando López
• Sarita Gálvez
• Danilo Cardona
• Estudiantina de la Universidad de San Carlos
• Rudy Solórzano
• Taller de Música de Ingeniería
• Jijiripago
• Canto Vital
• Voces Nuevas
• Maderas
• Raúl Flores
• Marco Antonio Caxaj
• Jornal
• Calicanto
• Semilla de Revolución,
• Rony Hernández
• Gad Echeverría
• Alux Nahual
• Canto General
• Sandra Morán
• Armandito Pineda
• Alejandro Arriaza
• Sobrevivencia

Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Nicaragua is the largest country in the Central American American isthmus, bordered by Honduras to the north and Costa Rica to the south. The country is situated between 11 and 14 degrees north of the Equator in the Northern Hemisphere, which places it entirely within the tropics. The Pacific Ocean...

Nicaragua Nueva canción musicians are attributed with transmitting social and political messages, and aiding in the ideological mobilisation of the populace during the Sandinista revolution.

• Pancasán
• Grupo Mancotal
• Luis Enríque Mejía Godoy
• Carlos Mejía Godoy
  Carlos Mejía Godoy
  Carlos Mejía Godoy is a Nicaraguan musician, composer and singer. He was born in Somoto, Madriz. Son of Carlos Mejía Fajardo and María Elsa Godoy, his brother Luis Enrique Mejía Godoy, three years younger than he is, is also an acclaimed and much-loved musician. Carlos and Luis Enrique were...
  
  
• Duo Guardabarranco
  Duo Guardabarranco
  Duo Guardabarranco was a Nicaraguan duo consisting of siblings Katia Cardenal and Salvador Cardenal. The duo has been a significant worldwide ambassador for Nicaraguan and Latin-American folk music for the last three decades, and has gained a broad international audience with their poetical lyrics...
  
  
• Grupo Libertad

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

• Haciendo Punto en Otro Son
  Haciendo Punto en Otro Son
  Haciendo Punto en Otro Son is a Nueva Trova band from Puerto Rico, founded in 1975. They recorded fourteen albums and performed in Latin America, the Caribbean and USA....
  
  
• Roy Brown
  Roy Brown
  Roy Brown may refer to:*Roy Brown , English professional footballer who was the first black player to play for Stoke City.*Roy Brown , English footballer...
  
  
• Aires Bucaneros
• Moliendo Vidrio
  Moliendo Vidrio
  Moliendo Vidrio is a Nueva Trova band from Puerto Rico, founded in 1975.Band members included Gary Núñez, Sunshine Logroño, Rosita Velázquez, Iván Martínez, Pedro Villalón and Carmen Nydia Velázquez, among many others...
  
  
• Atabal
• Andres Jimenez
• Antonio Caban Vale
  Antonio Cabán Vale
  Antonio Cabán Vale a.k.a. "El Topo" , is a guitarist, singer and composer of Puerto Rican folklore themes. He is one of the founders of the "new song" movement of the early 1970s...
  
   (El Topo
  El Topo
  El Topo is a 1970 Spanish language allegorical, cult western movie and underground film, directed by and starring Alejandro Jodorowsky...
  
  )
• Nicole Perez
• Taone
• Zoraida Santiago
  Zoraida Santiago
  Dr. Zoraida Santiago is a noted composer and singer of Puerto Rican cultural themes.-Early years:Santiago was born and educated in Santurce, Puerto Rico where she developed an interest in musical instruments at a very young age. Her parents had her take piano lessons as a child. She also took...
  
  
• Lourdes Pérez
  Lourdes Pérez
  Lourdes Pérez is a prolific Puerto Rican contemporary recording artist, songwriter, composer, arranger, poet, contralto vocalist and guitarist. She is also one of few female décimistas...
  
  
• Antillano

Cuba

Cuba

The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...

 - Nueva Trova

Nueva trova

Nueva trova is a movement in Cuban music that emerged around 1967/68 after the Cuban Revolution of 1959, and the consequent political and social changes....

• Silvio Rodríguez
  Silvio Rodríguez
  Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez is a Cuban musician, and a leader of the nueva trova movement.He is considered Cuba's best known folk singer and known for his highly eloquent and symbolic lyrics. Many of his songs have become classics in Latin American music, such as Ojalá, Playa Girón, Unicornio and...
  
  
• Pablo Milanés
  Pablo Milanés
  Pablo Milanés Arias is a Cuban singer-songwriter and guitar player. He studied at a conservatory in Havana. He is considered one of the founders of the Cuban nueva trova, along with Silvio Rodríguez and Noel Nicola...
  
  
• Carlos Puebla
  Carlos Puebla
  Carlos Manuel Puebla was a Cuban singer, guitarist, and composer. He was a member of the old trova movement who specialized in boleros and nationalistic songs.- Biography :...
  
  
• Sara González
• Noel Nicola
• Vicente Feliú
• Carlos Varela
  Carlos Varela
  Carlos Varela is a singer-songwriter of nueva trova from Havana, Cuba. In the 1980s he joined the Nueva Trova musical movement, a political and poetic musical genre connected with the Cuban Revolution....
  
  
• Augusto Blanca
• Frank Delgado
• Mayohuacan
• Santiago Feliú
• Manguaré
• Lázaro García

Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 - Canto Nuevo

• Alejandro Filio
• Fernando Delgadillo
  Fernando Delgadillo
  Fernando Delgadillo is a Latin American musician and composer. He is considered a major representative of the Folk music genre in Mexico.-Biography:...
  
  
• Gabino Palomares
• Amparo Ochoa
• Mexicanto
• On'ta
• Los Folkloristas
• Grupo Tepeu
• La Peña Móvil
• León Chávez Teixeiro
• Julio Solórzano
• Cade
• Anthar y Margarita
• Óscar Chávez
  Óscar Chávez
  Óscar Chávez is a Mexican singer, songwriter and actor. He was the main exponent of the Nueva Trova in Mexico in the sixties and seventies. He studied theatre at the UNAM and has produced and acted in several plays and movies and telenovelas in Mexico...
  
  
• Grupo del Cóndor Pasa
• Sanampay
• Escalón
• Inca-Taki
• Guadalupe Pineda
• Grupo Víctor Jara
• Eugenia León
• Alpasinche :es:Alpasinche (grupo)
• El "Negro" Ojeda
• Guadalupe Trigo
• Icnocuicatl
• La Nopalera
• Mana (Mexico 1980)http://emilioarteaga.wordpress.com/
• Marcial Alejandro (dead march 23 2009)
• Caito

Catalonia

Catalonia

Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...

 - Nova Cançó

• Joan Manuel Serrat
  Joan Manuel Serrat
  Joan Manuel Serrat i Teresa is a Catalan Spanish singer-songwriter.Serrat is considered one of the most important figures of modern, popular music in both the Spanish and Catalan languages...
  
  
• Lluís Llach
  Lluís Llach
  Lluís Llach i Grande is a Catalan composer and songwriter.Though partially dependent on arrangers, like Manel Camp or Carles Cases in his early works, Llach's songwriting has largely evolved from the more basic early compositions to a vastly more complex harmonic and melodic writing...
  
  
• Ovidi Montllor
  Ovidi Montllor
  -Career:At the age of 24, Montllor moved to Barcelona, where he was a member of various independent theater groups, including the CICF, and later with Núria Espert and Adrià Gual...
  
  
• Maria del Mar Bonet
  Maria del Mar Bonet
  Maria del Mar Bonet i Verdaguer is a Balearic singer from the island of Majorca.-Early life and career:She studied ceramics in the school of arts, but eventually she decided to dedicate herself to song. She arrived in Barcelona in 1967, where she began to sing with the group Els Setze Jutges...
  
  
• Raimon
  Raimon
  Ramon Pelegero Sanchis, who takes the stage name of Raimon , is a Valencian Spanish singer, one of the most important exponents of the musical style of Nova Cançó and one of the most well-known veteran artists in the Catalan language.-Youth:...
  
  
• Francesc Pi de la Serra

United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 - Nueva Canción

• Sangre Machehual
• Sabia
• Flor de Caña
• Sol y Canto

Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 - Nueva Canción

In Spain, Nueva Canción reclaimed back the popular folklore of each Spanish region and it had several variations, such as: Nueva canción castellana/Canción del pueblo (Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 and Castile

Castile

Castile is derived from a word meaning 'castle' and may refer to:-People:* Brooke Castile , American pairs figure skater* Javier Castilla , professional Colombian squash player* Simeon Castille , NFL cornerback...

), Nueva canción aragonesa (Aragón

Aragon

Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...

), Nueva canción canaria (Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

) and Manifiesto canción del Sur (Andalusia

Andalusia

Andalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...

).

• Paco Ibañez
  Paco Ibáñez
  Francisco "Paco" Ibáñez is a Spanish singer and musician born in Valencia on November 20, 1934, before the Spanish Civil War.He went to France in 1952 during the Franco dictatorship in Spain and recorded his first album in 1964....
  
  
• Elisa Serna
• Hilario Camacho
• Luis Eduardo Aute
  Luis Eduardo Aute
  Luis Eduardo Aute is a Spanish musician, singer-songwriter, film director, painter and poet.-First years in the Philippines:Luis Eduardo Aute was born in Manila, the capital of the Philippines, on September 13, 1943...
  
  
• Pablo Guerrero
• Amancio Prada
• Chicho Sánchez Ferlosio

Further reading

• "Socially conscious music forming the social conscience: Nicaraguan Musica Testimonial and the creation of a revolutionary moment" by T.M. Scruggs; in From tejano to tango: Latin American popular music edited by Walter Aaron Clark.