Con Toda Palabra: Lhasa de Sela
From Sarah Elzas
| 00:04:57
Producers: Sarah Elzas
Lhasa de Sela makes music that mixes the melodies and languages from her life--English, Spanish and French. The Mexican-American singer/songwriter grew up in Mexico and the US, lived in Montreal and has now adopted France as a second home. Her first album, La Llorona mixed Spanish melodies with a klezmer-sounding clarinet, and everything in between. It went platinum in Canada and had similar success in France. The songs on her latest album, The Living Road are in the three languages.
In this piece, Lhasa talks in her own words about the influence of languages and her life on her music.
2 Comments
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Review of Con Toda Palabra: Lhasa de SelaA woman sings and speaks in three languages, with English in the lead, so it can be perfectly followed by US listeners. For me, hearing the languages colliding in this piece that sits on a bed of wall-to-wall, intensely colorful music is very pleasurable. I've seen the album all over France and now I will buy it. If I have any criticism of the piece, it might be that there isn't time to learn much about the singer - the structure of the piece is all happening at once. I attribute that to time constraints. However, this piece would make a very attractive drip-in for any magazine or arts program and I suggest that the proudcer provide some tight lead-in copy that helps anchor who the singer is (more specific than the copy on the piece page - more info that's not in the piece, like the part about the record going platinum) and it would be a great piece to air. |
Broadcast History
The World, 5/16/05
Transcript
SUGGESTED INTRO:
Lhasa de Sela makes music that mixes the melodies and languages from her life--English, Spanish and French. Her first album, La Llorona, was mostly in Spanish. It went platinum in Canada and had similar success in France. The songs on her latest album, The Living Road, are in the three languages. Producer Sarah Elzas caught up with Lhasa in Paris.
[MUSIC: La Celestina, instrumental]
LHASA: Me Llamo Lhasa de Sela...
My name is Lhasa de Sela
Viví muchos años en México...
My father is Mexican. My mother is American. So I grew up speaking English and Spanish
Je m'appelle Lhasa. Je suis arrivée à Montréal en '91...
I moved to Montreal when I was 19, and then I lived in France for four years, and now I’m back in Montreal.
[MUSIC: La Celestina lyrics]
LHASA: the first album came out of years of playing in bars in Montreal, which I did for five years before we...
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Musical Works
All songs by Lhasa. Song Name (Album):
- La Celestina (La Llorona)
- Con Toda Palabra (The Living Road)
- La Confession (The Living Road)
- Anywhere on This Road (The Living Road)
- Para el Fin del Mundo O el Año Nuevo (The Living Road)
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Additional Information
- Produced: May 01, 2005
- Added to PRX: Jun 27, 2005
- This piece is in English
Charles Lane
Posted on April 05, 2006 at 12:23 PM | Permalink
Review of Con Toda Palabra: Lhasa de Sela
A nicely arranged review of the musician Lhasa de Sela who performs in three language. Programmers wanting something on music, international music, or polyglots can use this to bring their listeners a sonically perfect taste of what can only be found on public radio stations. Because it is without narration it can also be built into a much larger segment on de Sela by including her songs in full.