Natalia Lafourcade sits on a bench with her guitar in hand in the middle of the Blue Ribbon Garden atop the Walt Disney Concert Hall. It’s a dreary Saturday in early May, and the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter from the coast of Veracruz, Mexico, is wearing a brown coat over her long orange dress to protect her tiny frame from the frigid wind. Two microphones are in front of her; she calmly awaits the go-ahead from the video crew about 15 feet away to begin playing.
Upon receiving her cue, Lafourcade plays the opening notes of “Pajarito Colibrí,” a comforting folk ballad from 2022’s “De Todas las Flores,” her most recent album, that serves as a plea to a hummingbird — or, really, anyone who will listen — to take flight and fulfill its purpose.
“Everything is going to be okay, little hummingbird, don’t be afraid to live anymore,” she sings in a powerful lyrical soprano voice that fills the air and drowns out the nearby downtown traffic. “Everything is going to be okay, little hummingbird, you came into the world to be happy.”
As if summoned, a chorus of songbirds resting in the trees of the garden begin to accompany Lafourcade, turning the filming of a music video to promote her upcoming shows at the Hollywood Bowl (September 6 and 7) with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic into the kind of otherworldly performance her fans have come to expect.
Over the past two decades, Lafourcade, who turned 40 in February, has established herself as one of Latin America’s most revered and celebrated artists, a guardian of Mexico’s rich songbook who has contributed extensively to its creation. Her 10 studio albums have earned her 17 Latin Grammy Awards (the most for any female artist) and four Grammy Awards.
Lafourcade burst onto the scene in 2002 with her self-titled debut album, a fusion of Spanish rock, pop, jazz and bossa nova that produced hits like “En el 2000” and “Busca un Problema.” In 2012, she released “Mujer Divina,” a groundbreaking record that paid homage to Mexican bolero king Agustín Lara through modern interpretations of his most popular love ballads. To do so, she enlisted the help of collaborators like Venezuelan-American indie folk singer Devendra Banhart, Emmanuel del Real of Café Tacvba and legendary Brazilian tropicalia guitarist Gilberto Gil.
“Hasta la Raíz,” a landmark album that put Lafourcade’s intimate lyricism on full display, arrived three years later. The LP’s eponymous single, an ode to a former lover built over a huapango riff, is arguably the singer-songwriter’s most beloved song. Also appearing on the record is “Nada Es Suficiente,” an electropop cumbia about feeling unfulfilled in a relationship (the song translates to “nothing is enough”) that became an even bigger hit after Lafourcade re-recorded it with cumbia sonidera masters Los Angeles Azules; that version has been played more than 2.1 billion times on YouTube since its release. “Hasta La Raíz” was followed by two volumes of “Musas” (released in 2017 and 2018), a collection of covers of traditional Latin American classics and original material recorded with the guitar duo Los Macorinos.
“I felt like I was struck by lightning and I was grounded beneath my feet,” singer-songwriter Natalia Lafourcade said of her first Hollywood Bowl performance in 2019.
(Raul Roa / Los Angeles Times)
In 2019, Lafourcade performed at the Hollywood Bowl for the first time. Joined by Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, she delighted attendees for nearly three hours with a set list that ranged from son jarocho to rock en español to cumbia. In a career filled with highlights, Lafourcade says that concert was one of her most cherished moments as an artist. It was an experience she suspected she would repeat one day.
“I felt like I had been struck by lightning and anchored to the ground beneath my feet. At that moment I knew I would be back and I would find someone to connect with,” she said, referring to Dudamel.
“That was an iconic night, one of the greatest in the history of the Hollywood Bowl. The Beatles, Jimmy Hendrix, there is so much history in that place and up there is that night with Natalia Lafourcade,” said the Venezuelan-born conductor, who has He made a concerted effort during his tenure as conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic to incorporate Latin music into the orchestra's programming.
“It is a privilege for us to be able to play with her,” he added. “Los Angeles is a very Latin, very Mexican city. Having an incredible representative of that Latin identity playing at the Hollywood Bowl is very important and necessary.”
Lafourcade has released three studio albums in the five years since that memorable concert: two volumes of “Un Canto por México” (released in 2020 and 2021), tributes to her native country that include covers of classics like “Cien Años,” “Ya No Vivo Por Vivir,” and “La Llorona,” along with reinterpretations of her own songs; and “De Todas las Flores” (2022), her first album of all-new material since “Hasta la Raíz.”
“De Todas las Flores” was a pandemic project that took two years to complete. Stuck at home in Veracruz and forced to spend time with herself, Lafourcade sifted through fragments of unfinished songs recorded on her phone and reached out to French-Mexican musician and producer Adán Jodorowsky—son of filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky and her former neighbor in Mexico City—to help shape them. The end result was Lafourcade’s most vulnerable and reflective album to date, one that begins with the recognition that we come to this earth alone (“Vine Solita”) and ends with a farewell to a loved one who has died (“Que te Vaya Bonito, Nicolás”). In between, there are songs about loving (“Mi Manera de Querer”), healing (“María la Curandera”) and letting the wind take you wherever it wants (“Viento”).
The album was well received and earned Lafourcade three Latin Grammy Awards (Record of the Year, Singer-Songwriter Album, and Singer-Songwriter Song) and a Grammy for Latin Rock or Alternative Album, an award she shared with Colombian rocker Juanes.
“I feel like this album was a teacher that taught me about life, about death, about cycles, about time. It also taught me about patience and calm, about rest and flow and letting go and letting go,” she said.
“I remember that shortly after releasing ‘De Todas las Flores’ I told myself that I couldn’t let seven years go by without releasing another album. Now, I’m not so sure. This year I turned 40 and the big question became ‘Where to now? ’. I think it’s wonderful to be able to ask myself that question knowing well what my path has been.”
For now, Lafourcade is focused on her upcoming concerts with Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic: In addition to the two dates at the Hollywood Bowl, she is scheduled to perform with the orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City next month.
“The times we have collaborated have been to unite our two worlds, our two universes and see what magic, synergy and alchemy it brings,” he said, adding that the set list for these shows would be comprised of the most symbolic songs from his journey of more than two decades.
Beyond that, Lafourcade hinted that he has started working on some projects that he hopes will become a reality by 2025, although nothing is concrete yet.
“I’m not in such a rush,” he said. “I’m trying to take things at my own pace. I finally realized that going at my own pace has worked for me.”
