“Alisa Amador is one of those artists that comes along once in a lifetime. Her album “Narratives” was released in September. In 2020, she won an Iguana Music Fund grant to help buy recording equipment. Local audiences may know Amador from performances at the 2019 Cambridge Arts Council River Festival, at Club Passim’s 60th anniversary celebration that same year at the Shubert Theatre in Boston (with Sol y Canto) or the odd Club Passim performance, or as part of the Cambridge Community Foundation’s virtual We are Cambridge gathering last year. The song, posted on YouTube in mid-March, has already racked up 33,713 views. She told NPR the song was “an ode to in-between-ness, to having several identities at once, to feeling split between cultures and languages.” She is known for performing music that melds pop, funk, soul and “something uniquely her own” in Spanish and English her winning Tiny Desk Contest song, “Milonga accidental,” is her first submission sung only in Spanish. “I won the NPR Desk Contest!?!?!?!” Amador tweeted, saying she was “so honored, terrified and thrilled.”Īmador is expected to play a Tiny Desk concert this month at NPR’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., and headline the return of the Tiny Desk Contest On The Road tour, NPR Music said.Īmador began performing at age 5 as a backup singer for her parents’ folk band Sol y Canto and began playing classical guitar at 10, according to her official bio. “And these have been uniquely, painfully, difficult times.” “A career in independent music is challenging in good times,” Amador says. The annual contest has been known to draw more than 6,000 entries, and NPR Music said this was the fifth year submitting for Amador – who told organizers she’d been thinking about quitting music. (Photo: Cambridge Arts via Facebook)Ĭambridge singer-songwriter Alisa Amador is the winner of the year’s Tiny Desk Contest, NPR Music announced this week. Please don’t feed me penicillin.Alisa Amador performs at performing at the 2019 Cambridge Arts Council River Festival. I hope both is an option! Sweet and savory! I love all food! Except penicillin. And, sometimes their poetry is spot on.Īutumn, through and through! I cry happy-sad tears when I step out into a sunny- chilly autumn day. Not a band that people would first guess I listen to very much, more than I listen to Lake Street Dive (which people often compare my funkier folk-rock songs to) I love their creativity and rambunctious expressive energy. Pterodactyl – it flies! (Yes, I did just look up how to spell it, hehe)Ī band that no one would ever believe you love:ĭirty Projectors. Maybe as a result of being born a month premature? I’ve learned to accept it! My pinkies don’t straighten all of the way. Strangest bit of useless information that you share with people: I try not to leave the saddest song for the end, and tell stories only when it serves the song or brings in the audience. I always want them to feel taken care of and uplifted by the end of the set. When people give me their attention for the length of a set, it’s an honor! And also a responsibility. Going on a walk (especially on a hill, mountain, or by a body of water) and singing songs with loved ones. The way my parents just give themselves completely to the music, the way they move people – it taught me so much about performing. A recent highlight is the Sol y Canto 25th anniversary concert at Croma theatre (inside of Arlington Street Unitarian Universalist Church in Copley Square). I can play it whenever and it’s just so joyful and healing to sing.įavorite memory of seeing your parents in concert: My Gretsch-style electric guitar never ceases to amaze and inspire me, but I think the number one is still singing. To learn more about Alisa, check out her website. Alisa and her parents will be playing at the 60th-anniversary concert for Club Passim at the Shubert Theatre this Thursday and will be opening for the amazing Billy Wylder band at the me&thee in Marblehead on Friday, November 15, 2019. Be ready to wipe away a tear or two as she sings her lovely songs.Īlisa is the daughter of Puerto Rican/Argentine singer and bongo player, Rosi Amador and New Mexican guitarist and composer Brian Amador who make up the ensemble known as Sol y Canto. She brought people to tears with her original songs in English and Spanish. Getting to see Alisa live at last week’s Northeast Regional Folk Alliance conference in Connecticut was a memorable experience. I first witnessed the joy of Alisa’s interpretations of songs at one of the Club Passim tribute nights and fell in love with her velvety voice and so-so-so wonderful stage persona. The impact that she had made on music lovers in the Northeast is spreading rapidly since she recently came on the local scene. Alisa Amador is a name that you need to remember.
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