After more than a decade of loving her music from afar, I finally saw Natalia Lafourcade perform live in Toluca early this month as part of her tour for her album “Cancionera.” To say it was a dream come true would fall short: the evening was intimate, theatrical and deeply moving. It wasn’t just a concert — it felt like a one-woman play. Lafourcade performed every song acoustically, accompanied only by her guitar, weaving stories between each piece.
Few artists feel as woven into the fabric of modern Mexican music as Natalia Lafourcade. With a career spanning more than two decades, she is not just one of Mexico’s most beloved voices but also one of Latin America’s most decorated and enduring songwriters. At 41, Lafourcade holds four Grammy Awards and 18 Latin Grammys — more than any other woman in history, even edging out Shakira.
Over the course of 23 years, she’s released 12 albums and countless songs that have become part of Mexico’s collective soundtrack. One standout is her version of “Nunca es Suficiente” with Los Ángeles Azules, which has racked up more than 2.2 billion views on YouTube and still plays everywhere from taco stands to weddings, a decade after its release.
Lafourcade’s quiet power resonates beyond Mexico too. Her 2017 NPR Tiny Desk Concert is one of the 12 most-watched of all time, a testament to the global reach of her intimate, soul-stirring music.
The making of a musical icon
Born in Mexico City and raised in the lush, artistic atmosphere of Veracruz, Natalia Lafourcade was quite literally surrounded by music from the beginning. Her father was a musician, and her mother, a classically trained pianist, developed the Macarsi teaching method, which combines musical instruction with personal development. That philosophy became Natalia’s foundation.
Lafourcade attended music and art schools throughout her childhood, and by the age of 14, she joined a short-lived teen pop group called Twist. Just three years later, in 2002, she released her self-titled debut album. “En el 2000”, a playful, Y2K-era anthem from that record, became her breakout hit.
In the years that followed, Lafourcade leaned into collaboration, honing her sound alongside fellow musicians and releasing “Hu Hu Hu,” her second solo album. But it was her 2012 tribute project to Agustín Lara, “Mujer Divina,” that truly drew me in. This was the album that made me fall in love with Lafourcade’s music, and the one that revealed just how timeless and touching her artistry could be.
Reimagining tradition
“Mujer Divina” marked a graceful departure from Lafourcade’s pop roots into the romantic world of bolero. In honoring one of Mexico’s most legendary 20th-century composers, she reimagined songs that had been cherished since the 1930s. With the help of other acclaimed musicians, Lafourcade brought new life to Lara’s classics, setting the tone for a new artistic era— one grounded in soulfulness and folk tradition, where her soprano voice soared.
What followed was a series of critically acclaimed albums, including “Hasta la Raíz,” a folk-inspired and emotionally raw record whose title track remains Lafourcade’s most-streamed song on Spotify, and the two-volume “Musas.” These projects, created in collaboration with Los Macorinos — best known as Chavela Vargas’ backing band — paid homage to the richness of Latin American folk music. Here, the singer found her signature sound: acoustic, timeless, reverent.
By 2018, Lafourcade’s star had risen well beyond Mexico. That year, she performed at the 90th Academy Awards alongside Miguel and Gael García Bernal, singing “Remember Me” from Pixar’s “Coco,” which would go on to win the Oscar for Best Original Song.
Lafourcade has remained prolific in recent years, releasing two volumes of “Un Canto por México” and later “De Todas las Flores” in 2022— her first album of entirely original music in seven years. She debuted the project at New York’s Carnegie Hall, accompanied with a book and podcast exploring the album’s themes. Describing the album, Lafourcade called it “my salvation, my relief, the replanting of seeds.”
“Cancionera” and a new chapter
Natalia Lafourcade’s latest project, “Cancionera,” released earlier this year, feels like her most intimate offering yet— a spiritual unraveling, a love letter to Mexico’s past and perhaps to the artist herself. Recorded entirely in one take on analog tape with 18 musicians, the album echoes the warmth and imperfections of something deeply human. Its sound is steeped in the spirit of the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema and shaped by the reflective weight of turning 40.
“This album is full of symbolism, inspired by the surrealism of Mexico and the values of our tradition and iconography,” Lafourcade told the Associated Press in April. “I wanted to honor the songs and the path of the cancioneras and cancioneros of life.”
When Lafourcade announced the Cancionera tour in February, there was no way I couldn’t go. Although I hadn’t read about the album’s inspirations beforehand, sitting in Toluca’s Teatro Morelos it quickly became clear that the show was built around a character: her alter ego, La Cancionera. Part Chavela Vargas, part smoky mystic in a mezcal-soaked cantina, this character sang boleros and rancheras with aching, deliberate grace. Lafourcade called the performance “el teatro de la canción”— theater of song — and that’s exactly what it was.
The evening unfolded like a quiet spell. “Cancionera” is not just an album; it’s a portal. Whether you’ve been following Lafourcade’s journey for years or are only just discovering her work, this project is a moving reminder of her devotion to Mexican music— and the enduring magic of a voice that keeps finding new ways to sing the soul.
Rocio is based in Mexico City and is the creator of CDMX iykyk, a newsletter designed to keep expats, digital nomads and the Mexican diaspora in the loop. The monthly dispatches feature top news, cultural highlights, upcoming CDMX events & local recommendations. For your dose of must-know news about Mexico, subscribe here.
