Lila Downs

Lila Downs performs at the Barbican Hall in the City of London, a concert hall at Silk Street. The evening is a concert by the Mexican-American singer and songwriter.

Lila Downs is a singer and songwriter born in the United States to a Mexican mother and a Scottish-American father, and she has built her work on Mexican folk traditions, particularly the music of Oaxaca. Her recordings combine regional Mexican song with jazz, pop and Latin American genres, and she sings in Spanish, English and indigenous languages including Mixtec and Zapoteco. Her albums have been released on several labels over a career that began in the 1990s.

As a performer, Lila Downs is known on stage for combining singing with traditional dance and the Mexican and Oaxacan instruments that accompany her repertoire. Her concerts draw on this blend of folk material and original songs, presented with the regional costume and expressive staging associated with her work.

The Barbican Hall is the concert venue of the Barbican Centre, a large arts complex in the City of London, and it hosts orchestral, chamber and popular music programmes. The concert suits listeners interested in Mexican folk music and in contemporary singer-songwriters working across traditions.