Buika

Overview

Six years ago, while receiving a standing ovation in Paris, Concha Buika burst into tears on stage. "I don't feel I am more special than you," she explained to a Guardian reporter, reflecting on the event. "But in that moment I realised what was happening to me, how amazing it was. People in the audience were crying with me."

Eight years before, Buika had been carving out a living in Las Vegas as a Diana Ross and Tina Turner impersonator. An independent album released in 2002 didn't make many waves. But when she teamed up with producer Javier Limon (Lagrimas Negras), something more powerful than either of them had predicted was unleashed.

The resulting album, Mi Nina Lola (My Child Lola), became the sweetheart of Spanish youth. Buika's flamenco training, gained through singing on the street and hanging out with local Romani people, met Limon's ingenious capacity for fusion, which brought African rhythms, jazz, blues and soul into the mix. Above it all resides Buika's searing emotional honesty. "I sing the the truth. I sing about love. I sing to let the things inside me out so they don't hurt me," she says. "I feel what I sing, and I sing what I feel. Really, that's all I can do."

Since then, she's collaborated with the likes of Chucho Valdes, Anoushka Shankar, Nelly Furtado and Seal; performed in the film The Skin I Live In; received a Grammy Award nomination; and been listed in the NPR's 50 Great Voices gallery for radio.