Lila Downs

An astonishingly gifted vocalist with a classically trained three-octave range, and an arresting songwriter who tells poignant stories about love, death, loss, and betrayal, Lila Downs is a genre unto herself. Raised in Minnesota and Oaxaca, Downs sings of a Pan-American social consciousness in her rousing performances, drawing on folk and ranchera music of Mexico and South America, and American folk, jazz, blues, and hip-hop—blending irreverent and fun themes with serious social and political concerns in a distinctive style the Washington Post has called "cantina classical."