Lila Downs has been nominated for the BBC “Radio 3” World Music Awards in 2005; click here to hear the title song from her new CD, One Blood. She’s Scot and Mixtex Indian, grew up in Minnesota and Oaxaca, studied anthropology and
opera. You heard her songs in the movie, Frida.
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Putumayo Collections donates a portion of the proceeds from their CDs to a Cross-Cultural Initiative to inspire children to explore and connect with diverse cultures. Each CD contains music from many countries: Women of Africa; Women of Latin America (coming 9/21/04); Women's work; Women of the World-Celtic II; Women of Spirit. Another extraordinary collection, this one from Realworld, is Gifted Women of the World.
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Copper Wimmin, a trio that’s been singing
together since they were twelve, weave
their voices so intimately that you can barely tell one from another. Their acappella music on Etheric Bodies is energetic and provocative: a hurricane of sound that can leave listeners in tears. This is music like ancient women used to sing in caves before time began.
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Joanne Shenandoah’s Matriarch, is rich with Iroquois chants and songs about women. As custodians of Mother Earth, Oneida women controlled the land and all activities that placed life at risk (including war). These clan mothers nominated and deposed leaders, had the final say about marriage and divorce, were spiritual advisors, political counselors and healers. LISTEN
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Libana’s Borderland is a virtuoso musical journey through continents and cultures by a group of women who’ve perfected others’ language and instruments. Since 1979, Libana has been known for songs handed down via women’s traditions. Libana was a 10th century Moorish Musician and poet whose name symbolizes women’s creativity.
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Rokia Traore’s Bowmboi uses her clarion voice plus rhythms from her native Mali to describe her homeland land: “O Mali… your teachings comfort me, Respect in adversity, Dignity in privation, Generosity and good humor….Come with me and discover the land of my ancestors.” She sings of youth and death, obligation and celebration, memory, unity and solitude. In other words, of life.
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Brazilian Bossa Nova singer Rosa Passos has the precise pitch and the rhythm that made Joao Gilberto famous. But the New York Times said her sound is “in many ways more agreeable to hear: sweeter, more playful, less astringent, less withdrawn.” Sony’s Amorosa is Rosa’s North American debut and it’s all about her natural, easy voice and her acoustical guitar.
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Angelique Kidjo, Benin-born, is the most popular African female artist on the world- music scene. Her “Best Of” collection is from her five CDs between 1990 and 1998. Fluent in French, English-jazz and her country's traditional zilin vocal techniques, Kidjo often sings in her native Fon/Yoruba language, performing funk, Latin, jazz, gospel, Caribbean zouk, Congolese rumba,
and Afro pop.
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Singer/songwriter Chava Alberstein, “First Lady of Israeli Song,” has captured the
Israeli people’s pulse on almost 50 albums. Singing in Hebrew, English and Yiddish, she performs everything from love songs to prayerful ballads to defiant pleas against oppression. Her newest album is End of the Holiday.
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Cesaria Evora, born in the Cape Verde islands west of Senegal, sings on stage in bare feet in support of the disadvantaged women and children of her country. Her mornas  mix folk tunes with sadness at her islands’ slave trade history:  “Walking such a long way in the darkness with my hoe on my shoulder, my feet have grown old from stumbling so often in the glow of dawn…”
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Cuba's Omara Portuondo, the woman who stars in Buena Vista Social Club music, has been singing since the 1950’s. Her rich voice sings life’s sweet and difficult truths: “If only we could make all our dreams come true, you would love me like you did twenty years ago. How sad it is to see love slipping away…” 
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France's Helene Grimaud, exceptionally talented at the piano, took her first lesson at age 9 and was already fascinated by Beethoven sonatas at 13. Now in her early thirties, she is a classical piano virtuoso. An animal lover, she lives on a spacious reserve where she is licensed to keep wolves, which are her second passion.
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Portuguese Fado songs lament “fate or destiny.” In the 1800's the legendary Fadista Maria Severa, daughter of a tavern owner, committed suicide after a class-challenging love affair with an aristocratic bullfighter. Fado singers still perform in black shawls to honor her. Amalia Rodrigues, Cristina Branco, Mafalda Arnauth and Misia sing lyrics like: “I spread my wings and without fear was flown! I was to become everything I'd always wanted to be, for we are the ones who define our limits and rid ourselves of them if we wish to.”
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Zap Mama’s CD, Adventures in Afropea 1, features the original instrument, the primary instrument, the most soulful instrument: the human voice. Pygmies use only body, breath and vocal chord vibration; Marie Daulne, born in the Congo/Zaire, leads five Afro and European women to sing as you’ve never heard before. It is beautiful.
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Laisa Vulakoro is one of the most popular singers in Fiji. Her new CD, Laisa Live in Savusavu is vintage Vude, music that combines Disco, Rock, country and Island style. Many of the tunes are original and some have never been recorded. LISTEN
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