The Peruvian Susana Baca is one of the legends of Latin music. In the last decade, he had performances with packed theaters in Europe, won a Latin Grammy for an album recorded in confinement due to Covid-19 and achieved his second nomination for the US Grammys in 2024. But if there were any doubts—especially his detractors—the Latin Recording Academy gave him the gramophone for Musical Excellence. Like her, Enrique Bunbury, Ivan Lins, the Pandora trio and Olga Tañón received recognition.
“My voice has sung poetry,” the singer said at the ceremony in Las Vegas. “I also sing for the women who, like me, walked to make a more equitable world,” said the former Minister of Culture.
YOU CAN SEE: Susana Baca: “Making music is a form of resistance”
At the awards ceremony, Baca sang Couplet of the oa song that was born when listening to an older adult on one of his trips through Peru. With the song, the singer pays tribute “to the poets who know how to say,” but who did not learn to write. “Dear everyone, my music was and still is a song of protest, a song like a heart of freedom, an existential song of a single essence, and all this represents the great and open feeling in your hearts,” he noted at the Latin Grammys.
The singer, who also participated in the marches in Peru, mentioned the social and political crisis. “We are very hurt by everything that is happening in the country. We must not take away the freedom of protest from young people in the streets. They are imprisoning them, they want to silence them. I have marched with them too. I share this award with them, with their feelings, with generation Z.”
YOU CAN SEE: Susana Baca: “They will not silence us, we will take to the streets so as not to be accomplices”
In terms of international recognition, the Peruvian singer has won three Latin Grammy Awards and has been nominated twice for the American Grammy Awards, first for the album black lamentor (2002) and then by Epiphanies (2024). “We pay tribute to extraordinary artists who, with their legacy, their talent and their influence, have left an indelible mark on our musical history. In this tribute we celebrate and honor voices, countries, sounds, creators and, mainly, those living legends who have managed to make our sound a universal heritage,” said Manuel Abud, CEO of the Latin Recording Academy.
A recorded trip
The singer traveled to the United States accompanied by her husband, Ricardo Pereira, the producer Hugo Coya and the director Josué Méndez of the documentary I am alive. The production team led by Michelle Alexander said that they recorded the ceremony. “Being with Susana in this recognition is a privilege. Her story reminds us that art is also a form of resistance and love for Peru,” said the producer.
When she returned to the stage, Susana Baca told La República that the documentary covers her role as an activist and researcher. “Above all, it will be about this part that I have of being an image of people of African descent. We are still a racist country, unfortunately.”
After the Grammys, the Peruvian will be a figure at the Ecos Latinos 2025 Festival in São Paulo on November 20.
- Music Excellence Awardl. “This special award is granted by vote of the Board of Directors of the Latin Recording Academy to artists who have made creative contributions of exceptional artistic importance in the field of recording during their careers,” the organization maintains.
