1. Any music by Mozart
"When I was about four or five my mother used to take me to work with her. She cleaned a diplomat's apartment, which was full of tempting objects. To keep me out of trouble, she would sit me on a sofa near a record player and would put on the classical music records that were there. Listening to that music was the only way that I would stay quiet. Since those moments, music was my fuel."
2. 'Yo Vengo a Ofrecer mi Corazon’ by Fito Paez
"This song was my salvation during the first days of the pandemic and even today, when I sing it I feel my soul lifting."
3. 'Black Bird' by Paul McCartney
"This song was composed in 1968, amidst the full throttle of the battle for civil rights in the US. It was composed for the victims of this discrimination, and it accompanied their struggle. I listened to it for the first time in the 70s in Peru and it reaffirmed the moment in which I found myself, in terms of my personal fight against racism. I was fascinated by the description of the common mirlo, as a metaphor for both a black man or woman."
4. 'Gracias a la Vida' by Violeta Parra
"This is a Latin American hymn, a hymn of hope and affirmation for everyone. It is sung all over Latin America and has been sung by the continent's greatest voices. For me it's a song about gratitude, a song that I will always sing in private, maybe not in public, but I will always sing it. The feeling of gratitude it creates touches my soul."
5. 'Strange Fruit' Perfromed by Billy Holiday
"The first time I heard this I felt a great sense of pain. I didn’t have a translation but I felt the pain nevertheless. Ofcourse what it says is tremendous regarding the lynchings in the south of the US, but I didn't know this. When I finally was told about the story it was telling, it just confirmed the chilling sensation I felt when I first listened to it. Billie Holiday’s version affected me forever."
6. 'The Thrill is gone' Performed by BB King and Tracey Chapman
"This is a beautiful song of love and pain, but also of hope. For me Tracey Chapman is one of the most beautiful expressions of modern black music in the US and this encounter with BB King is sublime, as he is another master of modern US black music. The combination of his guitar doing what it does and her beautiful and rebellious voice, I just love."
7. 'Hasta la Raiz' by Natalia LaFouracde and Leonel Garcia
"Like in other parts of Latin America, there have been many disappearance in Peru. Until today there are mothers, brothers, who are still hoping to be reunited with their loved ones who have just been 'disappeared'. This is a love song, which I discovered only recently and sang at the request of the Red Cross. When I heard it I hadn’t been listening to many new singer songwriters , I’d been more engrained in the ones of my generation and Natalia Lafourcade puts her own stamp on what this generation is living through, its own disappeared, telling the story of these young people who have seen parts of their family dismembered and who look for them hasta el raiz"
8. 'Autocalanto' by Caetano Veloso
"Recently I listened to this song from Caetano Veloso’s new album Meu Coco, and a great tenderness invaded my being. He made this lullaby for his grandchild. I love it, I have always sung songs for children an with this album and song, he gives me this voice, this feeling, this love that I’ve always had for singing lullabies."
9. ‘Summertime’ sung by Janis Joplin
"I’ve never understood how someone can sing the way she sings. And of course I can’t say that when I was 18, vascilating between being a hippy and revolutionary, that Summertime was a bridge between them. On the one hand I felt rebellion, but on the other hand Janis Joplin encapsulated my generation. She leaves her soul in every version she does of this song. She leaves something in my soul too."
Susana Baca will perform in London in April as part of La Linea Festival Tickets here
