World music superstar Buika will give her debut Australian performance at Sydney’s City Recital Hall Angel Place on Wednesday 5 March at 8pm, performing songs from her latest, Grammy nominated album, La Noche Más Larga (The Longest Night), before heading to WOMADelaide.
The Spanish singer of African descent is making waves around the world with her unique sound – a ‘velvet gravel’ voice that brings an incredible uniqueness to her renditions of flamenco, jazz and soul works – along with her own emotive original works.
In just a few short years, Buika has become a bona fide star, receiving numerous accolades including two Latin Grammy Awards in 2008 and 2010 (Best Album and Best Production: Niña de Fuego and Best Traditional Tropical Album: El ultimo Trago) and being named one of the Best 50 Vocalists Of All Time by NPR, in a piece that also defined her as: “The Voice of Freedom”.
There have also been collaborations with Seal, Nelly Furtado and Anoushka Shankar, two performances on screen in Pedro Almodóvar’s film The Skin I Live In – which prompted the 2012 release in Australia of a Buika ‘best of’ collection entitled In My Skin – concerts in more than 22 countries, and numerous standing ovations.
Buika was nominated in the 56th Grammy Awards for Best Latin Jazz Album for La Noche Más Larga, her sixth and latest album that she is currently touring around the world.
Speaking about her imminent debut in Australia, Buika says, “I am very much looking forward to coming to Australia and sharing music from my latest album.”
“It is my most diverse album yet and one recorded behind my own ideas; made from a state of freedom.”
“I think it is the bravest record that I have made.”
Buika, along with her two main musical partners, Iván “Melón” Lewis and percussionist Ramón Porrina, were the overall producers of the album in which nearly half of the songs were written completely by Buika. It also features a stunning version of the Jacques Brel classic Ne Me Quitte Pass sung in French, a new arrangement of the Billie Holiday original Don’t Explain, and a special appearance by jazz guitar great Pat Metheny.
On La Noche Más Larga, Buika continues to break down the walls that surround flamenco, the root source of everything she does, but a tradition that can’t contain her ever-evolving vision.
Catch Buika in Australia in March:
March 5 City Recital Hall, Angel Place, Sydney
March 7 & 8 Womadelaide, Adelaide
Buika’s La Noche Mas Larga is out now through Warner Music Australia.
“Buika possesses a voice that make would make the blandest song burst with pathos and passion.” – The Australian
“She has a husky, layered and imperious voice, something like Nina Simone’s but more flexible and virtuosic” – The New York Times.
“A singer like Buika comes only once in a generation.” – The New York Post
“She can write emotions just as well as wringing them out of somebody else’s words” – Mojo
“Buika possesses the most haunting voice to be found on either side of the Atlantic” – The Sunday Times
“Unique is an over-used word but this Spanish-African singer and rising world music star’s gorgeous, smoky, profoundly soulful blend of jazz, flamenco, blues, soul and more deserves the title.” Miami Herald