Lhasa de Sela
| Lhasa de Sela | |
|---|---|
Lhasa in Stuttgart, July 2005
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| Background information | |
| Also known as | Lhasa |
| Born |
September 27, 1972 Big Indian, New York, U.S. |
| Died | January 1, 2010 (aged 37) Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| Genres | Folk, World |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1985–2009 |
| Labels | Audiogram |
| Website | lhasadesela |
Lhasa de Sela (September 27, 1972 – January 1, 2010), also known by the mononym Lhasa, was an American-born singer-songwriter who was raised in Mexico and the United States, and divided her adult life between Canada and France. Her first album, La Llorona, went platinum in Canada and brought Lhasa a Félix Award and a Juno Award.
Following this success, Lhasa toured with Lilith Fair, then joined her sisters in a French circus troupe, contributing her husky voice to the musical backdrop. She lived in Marseille and began to write more songs, then moved back to Montreal and produced a second album, The Living Road. Once again, she toured in support of her album, and she collaborated with other musicians on their projects. During this time, BBC Radio 3 honored her as the best world music artist of the Americas in 2005. She published a book about her impressions of life on the road.
Lhasa recorded a third album, titled Lhasa, but she was diagnosed with cancer in 2009 around the time it was released. She endured severe treatments but these did not halt the illness. She died on New Year's Day 2010. A memorial program of her music was put together in January 2012, performed in Montreal by artists who had worked with her.
Lhasa was born in Big Indian, New York, of a Mexican father, language instructor Alejandro "Alex" Sela, and an American mother, photographer and actress Alexandra Karam. According to Lhasa, her hippie parents did not give her a name until the age of five months; her mother was reading a book about Tibet and the word Lhasa "just grabbed her" as the right name for the baby girl. Lhasa's maternal grandmother was Elena Karam (1909–2001), an actress best known for her leading role in Elia Kazan's film America America. Her paternal grandmother was Carmen de Obarrio (1906–1982), a Panamanian pianist who studied in Los Angeles with Egon Petri, and with Edgar Varèse in San Francisco. Lhasa had a Lebanese great-grandfather named Basel who sang in six languages. Her mother played harp and her father played flute. Her first decade was spent criss-crossing the United States and Mexico, living and traveling in a converted school bus with her parents and siblings, home-schooled by her mother. Both her parents spoke fluent Spanish, but she was raised speaking primarily English, with Spanish added during a total of eight years' residence in Mexico. Along with her family she listened to a wide variety of recordings including songs by Chilean musician Victor Jara; as a young child she dreamed of marrying him some day, not knowing he had been killed.
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