Lila Downs

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Lila Downs is a Mexican-American singer. She performs her own compositions as well as tapping into native Mesoamerican music of the Mixtec, Zapotec, Maya and Nahuatl cultures.

Downs, the daughter of a Scottish-American father and a Mixtec mother, grew up partly in the Mexican province of Oaxaca, partly in Minnesota.

Downs briefly studied singing at the University of Minnesota. She dropped out and returned to Mexico where whe learned to weave. Later, she began singing in the club scenes of Oaxaca and Philadelphia along with Paul Cohen, an expatriate saxophonist. They began collaborating together on songs that would slowly evolve into Down's subsequent recordings.

In recent years, Downs and her band have toured widely in Mexico, South America, the US and Europe. Downs is currently based in Coyoacan (Mexico City).

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