| Lhasa de Sela | |
|---|---|
Lhasa in Stuttgart, July 2005 |
|
| Background information | |
| Also known as | Lhasa |
| Born | September 27, 1972 Big Indian, New York, U.S. |
| Origin | Montreal |
| Died | January 1, 2010 (aged 37) Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Genres | Alternative rock, folk, world |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1985–2009 |
| Labels | Audiogram |
| Website | http://www.lhasadesela.com/ |
Lhasa de Sela (September 27, 1972 – January 1, 2010), 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.
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Lhasa was born in Big Indian, New York, 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.[1] 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.[2] 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.[3]
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.[2] She sang for five years in bars, collaborating with rock guitarist Yves Desrosiers.[2] 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.[4] By 2003 it had sold 120,000 units in Canada, 330,000 in France, and 30,000 in the U.S.[5]
After touring in Europe and North America for several years with Lilith Fair,[3] Lhasa left her singing career in 1999 and moved to France to join her sisters in Pocheros, a circus/theatre company.[3] 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,[6] 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."[3]
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.[3][7]
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.[1][3] Her body was cremated.[7] Two weeks later on January 16, Jim Corcoran devoted an episode of his CBC Radio One program À Propos, a weekly show about Quebec music, to a Lhasa tribute show.[8]
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.[9]