Lila Downs to Celebrate Day of the Dead at Segerstrom Center, 10/25

Grammy® Award-winning Mexican-American music star Lila Downs, who fuses popular music genres and indigenous Mexican music, celebrates Di?a de Muertos (Day of the Dead) at Segerstrom Center for the Arts on October 25, 2015. Downs will showcase some of her newest songs from Balas y Chocolate (Bullets & Chocolate) that was released on March 24, 2015. The recording features Colombian musician Juanes, a three-time Latin Grammy Award-winner. Downs explains that "[Balas y Chocolate] was inspired by both the Day of the Dead offering and celebration and also from my personal dance with my partner's possible death." She has a "stunning voice, a confident multicultural vision grounded in her Mixtec Indian roots," says Los Angeles Times. Indeed, her impressive vocal range is as much a musical delight as a platform for her concerns for social justice in Mexico.

Tickets to Lila Downs start at $49 and will go on sale Sunday, March 29, 2015 at 10 a.m. PDT. Tickets will be available online at SCFTA.org, at the Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa or by calling (714) 556-2787. The TTY number is (714) 556-2746.

Segerstrom Center for the Arts applauds Kia, Official Automotive Partner of the Center, and United Airlines, Official Airline of the Center.

Lila Downs is one of the most celebrated Latin artists in the world and has one of the world's most distinctive voices and innovative approaches to music. She has recorded 11 studio albums, garnering a Grammy and three Latin Grammys. Her last solo CD, Pecados y Milagros, won both a Latin Grammy in the Folk category and a Grammy in the Mexican Regional Category. Her recent collaborative CD, Raiz, with Nina Pastori and Soledad, won a Latin Grammy in the Folk Category and was nominated for Album of the Year in the Latin Grammy and for Best Latin Pop Album in the Grammy Awards.

Born in the state of Oaxaca, Me?xico, she is the daughter of a Mixtec Indian woman, Anastasia Sa?nchez, who ran away from her village at 15 to sing in Mexico City cantinas, and a University of Minnesota professor Allen Downs, who saw her singing and fell in love. She grew up in both Minnesota and Oaxaca and studied classical voice and cultural anthropology at the University of Minnesota. Her music and vocal artistry have many influences, as varied as the ancient cultures that serve as her inspiration. Downs' compositions are often striking commentaries on social conditions, including migration and the search for roots as a core human need. She makes an important and deep connection with her fans, who are of all ages, races and backgrounds. "I am very fortunate," said Downs. "People who follow our music belong to all walks of life. Every day we connect with them."

For two decades, Downs has traveled throughout the world reinterpreting the roots of music, such as blues, jazz, soul, cumbia, rock, rap and klezmer music. She weaves various musical forms with traditional Mexican and native Mesoamerican music, singing in Spanish, English and the languages of the Mixtec, Zapotec, Maya and Nahuatl cultures. Her tremendous voice and the originality of her compositions create a musical concept that is highly innovative and unique. Some might classify Downs simply as a Mexican artist, but there is no real way to categorize her music except to say it is an exciting fusion of international sounds and musical genres.

Downs has performed at many of the world's most prestigious festivals and venues and has sung at the White House. She performed with Caetano Veloso on the Latin Grammys 2012 telecast, as well as the 75th Academy Awards televised ceremony, performing the Oscar-nominated song "Burn It Blue" from the movie Frida. Her music has also been included in several other feature films such as The Counselor, Tortilla Soup, Real Women Have Curves, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, Carlos Saura's Fados, Mariachi Gringo and Hecho en Mexico. Other artists with whom she has collaborated in recordings and concerts include Mercedes Sosa, Santana, Juanes, Bunbury, Cafe Tacuba, Wynton Marsalis, Angelique Kidjo, Juan Gabriel and Los Tigres del Norte.

While the sound of Downs' new album, Balas y Chocolate, centers on danceable fusions of mostly cumbias, klezmer-like norten?a, hip hop and pop, the serious and timely lyrical content is a fierce condemnation of the current violence and corruption engulfing Mexico. It spotlights Downs' concerns with the erosion of civil rights and justice, the still escalating threats to the country's journalists and the excess in modern life, lost love and more. The title track is a dedication to migrant children, while the first single, "La Patria Madrina," is a duet with Colombian superstar Juanes that pledges to passionately fight for the values of one's land and society.

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