Buika – Sweet sounds in Spanish

Hat tip: Euromight

Photo from Buika’s official website

Source: Wikipedia

Concha Buika (born 1972 in Palma de Mallorca) is a Spanish singer. Her album Niña de Fuego was nominated for the 2008 Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

Buika’s family is originally from Equatorial Guinea. She grew up in Mallorca among Spanish Romani people (Gitanos) – who imbued in her the traditional “cante” flamenco – as the only person of African descent in her neighborhood. Her music mixes flamenco and coplas with soul and jazz.

During the 1990s she took part in different productions, such as Ombra by La Fura dels Baus and the soundtrack for the Spanish movie km.O. At the same time she composed several songs such as “Ritmo para você”, “Up to the Sky” and “Loving You”.

From November 2000 to March 2001, she sang at The Luxor, Harrah’s, and Gold Coast casinos in Las Vegas as a Tina Turner impersonator. She also performed as a guest singer in the Blue Note festival with Rachelle Ferrell.

Buika is a singer who handles and fuses many musical styles (flamenco, copla, jazz, rumba, soul), having also appeared as vocalist in house music tracks authored by Spanish producers David Penn and DJ Chus. She is noted as one of the most lively and spontaneous artists in the current Spanish musical scene.

Her second album, Mi Niña Lola, included traditional Spanish Copla songs (Mi Niña Lola, Ojos Verdes, Te Camelo) and flamenco rhythms of “tanguillos” and “bulerías”. The album ended with a flamenco-jazz fusion song titled “Love” and an original song titled “Jodida pero contenta”. Her singing is accompanied by guitarist Niño Josele.

In contrast, her third album, Niña de Fuego, contains mostly songs (Coplas, Bulerías, Rumbas) written by Javier Limón, her artistic producer, and Buika herself, along with remakes of classic Spanish Coplas (including the song that gives name to the album’s title) and a Mexican Ballad song.

Visit Bukia’s official website.