Rare London show for the Chilean rapper and her band playing tracks from her new album Vida.

Ana Tijoux – MC, singer, poet and lyricist – is known for her willingness to confront social injustice and her commitment to nonviolence, and it is just as common to see her  on Al-Jazeera or Democracy Now! as it is to see her grace the stages of Lollapalooza or Roskilde. Re-connecting with her roots and fighting for a whole continent, she has become the voice of a generation, not only in Chile but for Latinos worldwide.

Earlier this year she put out a new single Niñx, and more recently Tania, a tribute to her sister who died four years ago. They are both from her forthcoming new studio album Vida, her first since 2014’s Vengo. Tijoux was recently chosen by Billboard as the Best Female Rapper in history. She has collaborated with artists such as Jorge Drexler, Molotov, Los Chikos del Maíz, Julieta Venegas and Sara Hebe among many others.

Born in France, she is the daughter of two Chilean refugees who left their homeland under the military coup of Pinochet in 1973. Tijoux formed her first rap group in 1975. In 2006, Tijoux started a solo career when she crossed over to the mainstream of Latin pop after her collaboration with Mexican singer Julieta Venegas in the radio hit Eres para mí. Her track 1977 had breakout success when it featured in Breaking Bad (2010); La Bala (2012) became an international smash and gained a Grammy nomination. Vengo was released in 2014, a mix of hip-hop, neo-soul and Andean folk and in the same year she won her first Latin Grammy for Record of the Year for the song Universos paralelos, a collaboration with Uruguayan musician Jorge Drexler. In 2020, Tijoux’s song No estamos solas was chosen as the theme song for La Jauría, the first Chilean Amazon Prime Video original series.

Read Songlines interview with Ana Tijoux here.

In support is Montañera, who has established herself as one of the most intense and unique voices from Colombia with her elastic vocals and sublime folkloric reinvention. Last year’s album A Flor De Piel has won her many new followers and had The Observer hailing her as “One to Watch.”

‘She has without a doubt, one of the greatest voices that have emerged from Colombia in the past years.’ Rolling Stone Magazine

‘In Montañera’s fluid continuum, folk music isn’t an ancient artifact, but a living, breathing entity that was always meant to free us.’ Pitchfork