Mercedes Sosa
Haydée Mercedes Sosa , affectionately known by her audience as la Negra ("the black one") (born July 9, 1935 in San Miguel de Tucumán , Argentina , † October 4, 2009 in Buenos Aires ), was a singer of South American folklore and political protest songs.
She was one of the Nuevos Cancioneros Argentina (the "new songwriters" who were assigned to the Nueva Canción outside Argentina ), a political style of folklore that emerged in the province of Mendoza . In addition to Sosa, Armando Tejada Gómez , Manuel Oscar Matus and Tito Francia are also included.
Sosa's program included interpretations of traditional and contemporary songs (by Víctor Jara , Julio Numhauser , Pablo Neruda , Violeta Parra , Atahualpa Yupanqui , among others) with socially critical and political content that opposed war and dictatorship and for the rights of the oppressed indigenous peoples and others of the landless people (campesinos).
Life
Mercedes Sosa came from a Diaguita - French family. In October 1950, she took part in a competition held by a local radio station under the pseudonym Gladys Osorio and won a two-month contract. So she first became known in Mendoza , her home province, and married the musician Manuel Oscar Matus there , with whom she had a child.
Her first long-playing record was released in 1962 under the title “La voz de la zafra” (“The Voice of the Sugar Cane Harvest”) and contained exclusively Argentine folklore. Mercedes Sosa achieved her nationwide breakthrough three years later at the “Festival Nacional de Folklore de Cosquín ”, where she appeared with the support of the singer Jorge Cafrune . She expanded her repertoire with pieces from almost all of Latin America. Two years later she was already giving concerts worldwide, including in Miami , Lisbon , Porto , Rome , Warsaw , Leningrad , Kislovodsk , Sochi , Gagra , Baku and Tbilisi .
In her youth she sympathized with Juan Perón and supported various left movements. After the coup in Argentina on March 24, 1976, she stayed in her home country despite the repression by the now established military dictatorship . Their albums were banned. In 1979 she and the audience were arrested at a concert in La Plata . In the following year, Sosa fled into exile in Madrid via Paris after her second husband had died shortly before. In 1982 she performed at the West Berlin festival Horizonte Festival of World Cultures (No. 2, 1982). When the Argentine government was forced to hand over power to a civilian government later in the same year as a result of the Falklands War , it first returned to Buenos Aires for a concert. Your concert at the Buenos Aires Opera House is often seen as a key situation in the transition period and represents a political and musical renewal of Argentine culture. The double album Mercedes Sosa en Argentina (1982) wrote music history nationwide. From exile, she also organized a series of performances with León Gieco , Charly García , Antonio Tarragó Ros , Rodolfo Mederos and Ariel Ramírez , before finally returning to Argentina in 1983.
Her last album Cantora 1 (2009), on which Fito Páez and Shakira sing with her, among others , was nominated for three Latin Grammys .
In German-speaking countries, Sosa also became known through joint concerts with Konstantin Wecker . She has also worked with and performed with many international artists, including Joan Baez , Maria Farantouri , Andrea Bocelli , Nana Mouskouri , Luciano Pavarotti , Shakira and Sting .
Death and appreciation
On September 18, 2009, Sosa had to be hospitalized in Trinidad, Palermo , Buenos Aires with severe liver problems . During the course of treatment, she suffered cardiopulmonary failure and died on October 4, 2009 at 5:15 a.m. local time at the age of 74. Her body was laid out in public in the parliament building and state mourning was declared. A minute's silence for Mercedes Sosa was observed before the game in all football stadiums in the country. According to their last will, their ashes were scattered in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires, in Tucumán and in their adopted home Mendoza.
The UNIFEM raised Sosa's work for women's rights out positively. The Consejo Interamericano de Música ( OAS ) honored her. Since 1995 she has been the recipient of the great CAMU-UNESCO Prize, awarded by the Argentine Council for Music and the UNESCO Secretariat.
Sosa was awarded the Sarmiento Prize by the Argentine Senate in 2005 in recognition of her artistic achievements and her commitment to human rights . She won several Grammy Latinos (2000, 2003, 2006) and Gardel awards . Sosa was appointed UNICEF Ambassador for Latin America and the Caribbean in 2008.
In 2014 an asteroid was named after her: (27147) Mercedessosa .
Biographies
- Mercedes Sosa, La Negra by Rodolfo Braceli (Spanish)
- Mercedes Sosa, La Mami by Fabián Matus (Spanish)
- Mercedes Sosa, The Voice of Hope by Anette Christensen (English and Spanish)
- Mercedes Sosa, More than a Song by Anette Christensen (English and Spanish)
Discography
- La voz de la zafra (1962)
- Canciones con fundamento (1965)
- Yo no canto por cantar (1966)
- Hermano (1966)
- Para cantarle a mi gente (1967)
- Con sabor a Mercedes Sosa (1968)
- Mujeres Argentina (1969)
- Navidad con Mercedes Sosa (1970)
- El grito de la tierra (1970)
- Homenaje a Violeta Parra (1971)
- Hasta la victoria (1972)
- Cantata Sudamericana (1972)
- Traigo un pueblo en mi voz (1973)
- Niño de mañana (1975)
- A que florezca mi pueblo (1975)
- En dirección del viento (1976)
- O cio da terra (1977)
- Mercedes Sosa interpreta a Atahualpa Yupanqui (1977)
- Si se calla el cantor with Horacio Guarany (1977)
- Serenata para la tierra de uno (1979)
- A quien doy (1980)
- Gravado ao vivo no Brasil (1980, live recording from Brazil)
- Mercedes Sosa en Argentina (1982)
- Mercedes Sosa (1983)
- Como un pájaro libre (1983)
- Recital (1983)
- ¿Será posible el sur? (1984)
- Vengo a ofrecer mi corazón (1985)
- Corazón americano (1985) (with Milton Nascimento and León Gieco )
- Mercedes Sosa '86 (1986)
- Mercedes Sosa '87 (1987)
- Gracias a la vida (1987)
- Amigos míos (1988)
- En vivo en Europa (1990)
- De mí (1991)
- 30 años (1993)
- Sino (1993)
- Gestos de amor (1994)
- Oro (1995)
- Escondido en mi país (1996)
- Alta fidelidad (1997) (with Charly García )
- Al despertar (1998)
- Misa Criolla (2000)
- Acústico (2002)
- Argentina quiere cantar (2003) (with Víctor Heredia and León Gieco )
- Corazón libre (2005)
- Cantora (2009)
- Deja la vida volar (2011) (publication of concert recordings (posthumously))
Awards for music sales
|
|
|
| Country / Region |
 gold |
 platinum
|
Sales | swell |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources) |
||||
 Argentina (CAPIF)
|
9 × gold9
|
25 × platinum25th
|
1,062,000 | capif.org.ar AR2 |
| All in all |
9 × gold9
|
25 × platinum25th
|
||
Filmography
- Güemes, la tierra en armas (1971)
- Argentinísima (1972)
- Esta es mi Argentina (1974)
- Mercedes Sosa, como un pájaro libre (1983)
- Será posible el sur: Mercedes Sosa (D 1985/2008)
- Historias de Argentina en vivo (2001)
- Mercedes Sosa, la voz de Latínoamérica, Mercedes Sosa, the voice of Latin America (2013)
Web links
- Unofficial homepage: biography (spanish)
- Official Homepage: Discography (Spanish)
- At some point I will sing John Lennon's Imagine - Conversation with Mercedes Sosa (published on October 25, 2003 in the magazine of the Berliner Zeitung )
- Mercedes Sosa (Spanish) ( Memento from August 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- Mercedes Sosa - other texts (Spanish, Portuguese)
- Works by and about Mercedes Sosa in the catalog of the German National Library
- Mercedes Sosa in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Mercedes Sosa - The Voice of Latin America (published as part of Cinespañol ).
- Mercedes Sosa. In: FemBio. Women's biography research (with references and citations).
- The historical and political context (English Spanish and Turkish)
- YouTube channel with Mercedes Sosa playlists
Individual evidence
- ↑ Knut Henkel: Singing legend Mercedes Sosa: Argentina loses its voice . In: Spiegel Online . October 4, 2009 ( spiegel.de [accessed May 8, 2019]).
- ↑ Nuevo Cancionero | www.mendoza.edu.ar. Retrieved April 4, 2020 (European Spanish).
- ↑ The following Mercedes Sosa is dead , in: Spiegel-Online of October 4, 2009, accessed on October 5, 2009.
- ↑ Reinhold Horn: Thanks to life. Dedicated and emancipated legend: Mercedes Sosa , in: Jazzzeitung online, 2004/03, accessed on October 5, 2009.
- ↑ Volker Schmidt: The voice of South America has fallen silent , in: Zeit-Online from October 5, 2009, accessed on October 5, 2009.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sosa, Mercedes |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Sosa, Haydée Mercedes (full name); Negra, La |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | argentinian singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 9, 1935 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | San Miguel de Tucuman , Argentina |
| DATE OF DEATH | 4th October 2009 |
| Place of death | Buenos Aires |