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Younger Mercedes Sosa.Mercedes Sosa
Mercedes Sosa, who has died aged 74, was the most renowned Latin-American singer of her generation; she was known as "La Negra" for her long, jet-black hair, and as "the voice of the voiceless ones", for her performances of songs which championed the rights of the poor.
Published: 7:36PM BST 04 Oct 2009
Though not known as a songwriter, she was an unrivalled interpreter of works by her compatriot, the Argentinian Atahualpa Yupanqui, and Chile's Violeta Parra, both icons of the region's nueva canción movement towards the end of the 1960s, whose work often spoke of the struggle for human rights and democracy.
As a figurehead of the Left in her own right, Mercedes Sosa fell foul of the military junta that ruled her nation between 1976 and 1983 and conducted the notorious "Dirty War" against its own people. It was during this time that she had to live in exile, even though, as she once declared: "An artist isn't political in the party political sense – they have a constituency, which is their public – it is the poetry that matters most of all."
In spite of this, her choice of material demonstrated a shrewd ability to encapsulate popular consensus on the Left, and she sang definitive versions of many songs, including Parra's classic Gracias a la Vida and Horacio Guarany's Si Se Calla El Cantor (If the singer is silenced).
In a career spanning nearly six decades, which saw her popularity survive passing trends, she released 70 albums. Although these were often based in the Argentinian folkloric styles with which she first achieved success, she was notable for her extraordinary versatility. Her repertoire also included Argentinian tango, Cuban nueva trova, Brazilian bossa nova, rock and even liturgical music – with Ariel Ramirez's Misa Criolla, in 2000. From 1967 onwards she toured internationally, and subsequently collaborated with a huge array of artists, including Luciano Pavarotti, Sting, Nana Mouskouri, Joan Baez, Pablo Milanés, Caetano Veloso, and Shakira.
Pounding on her trademark bombo drum, acting her songs out with expressive gestures and singing in a rich contralto voice that effortlessly conveyed a strong moral authority, she was a familiar figure on the world's stages.
One of her most memorable UK appearances was at London's Royal Festival Hall in October 1999, shortly after the infamous detention in Britain of Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet.
"I cannot believe I am in London singing these songs, with Pinochet under house arrest," she cried, before launching into an emotional rendition of Todo Cambia (Everything Changes) another nueva canción standard which had long been part of her repertoire. She recorded the song several times, most recently in a stripped-down version for her 2005 comeback album Corazón Libre.
More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/music-obituaries/6259898/Mercedes-Sosa.html
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