Haydée Marta Mercedes Sosa Girón (9 July 1935 – 4 October 2009) was an Argentine singer who was popular throughout Latin America and many countries outside the region. With her roots in Argentine folk music, Sosa became one of the preeminent exponents of El nuevo cancionero. She gave voice to songs written by many Latin American songwriters. She was hailed as the "voice of the voiceless ones", and often called "the conscience of Latin America".
Sosa performed in venues such as the Lincoln Center in New York City, the Théâtre Mogador in Paris, the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, as well as sold-out shows in New York's Carnegie Hall and the Roman Colosseum during her final decade of life. Her career spanned four decades and she was the recipient of six Latin Grammy awards (2000, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, 2011), including a Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 and two posthumous Latin Grammy Award for Best Folk Album in 2009 and 2011. She won the Premio Gardel in 2000, the main musical award in Argentina. She served as an ambassador for UNICEF.
Life
Sosa was born on 9 July 1935, in San Miguel de Tucumán, in the northwestern Argentine province of Tucumán, of mestizo ancestry. She was of French, Spanish and Diaguita descent. Her parents, a day laborer and a washerwoman, In 1950, at age fifteen, she won a singing competition organized by a local radio station and was given a contract to perform for two months. brought her to the attention of the Argentine public. In 1967, Sosa toured the United States and Europe with great success. In later years, she performed and recorded extensively, broadening her repertoire to include material from throughout Latin America.
In the early 1970s, Sosa released two concept albums in collaboration with composer Ariel Ramírez and lyricist Félix Luna: Cantata Sudamericana and Mujeres Argentinas (Argentine Women). She also recorded a tribute to Chilean musician Violeta Parra in 1971, including what was to become one of Sosa's signature songs, Gracias a la vida. During the 1970s she was a part of two films by the director Leopoldo Torre Nilsson: El Santo de la Espada in 1970 and Güemes, la tierra en armas in 1971, in which she portrayed Juana Azurduy de Padilla, the guerrilla military leader who fought for Argentine independence.
thumb|Sosa in 1972
After the military junta of Jorge Videla came to power in 1976, the atmosphere in Argentina grew increasingly oppressive. Sosa faced death threats against both her and her family, but refused for many years to leave the country. At a concert in La Plata in 1979, Sosa was searched and arrested on stage, along with all those attending the concert. She related to this feeling and struggled to continue recording and performing. In an interview with the New York Times, she said, "It was a mental problem, a problem of morale...It wasn't my throat, or anything physical". In 2002, she sold out both Carnegie Hall in New York and the Colosseum in Rome in the same year. She opposed President Carlos Menem, who was in office from 1989 to 1999, and supported the election of Néstor Kirchner, who became president in 2003.
Sosa was a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Sosa disliked being identified as a protest singer. While she was outright in her political stances, Sosa said the following on the position of the artist:
In a career spanning four decades, she worked with performers across several genres and generations, folk, opera, pop, rock, including Martha Argerich, Andrea Bocelli, David Broza, Franco Battiato, Jaime Roos, Joan Baez, Francis Cabrel, Gal Costa, Luz Casal, Lila Downs, Lucio Dalla, Maria Farantouri, Lucecita Benitez, Nilda Fernández, Charly Garcia, León Gieco, Gian Marco, Nana Mouskouri, Pablo Milanés, Holly Near, Milton Nascimento, Pata Negra, Fito Páez, Franco De Vita, Lourdes Pérez, Luciano Pavarotti, Silvio Rodríguez, Ismael Serrano, Shakira, Sting, Caetano Veloso,
Sosa participated in a 1999 production of Ariel Ramírez's Misa Criolla. Her song Balderrama is featured in the 2008 movie Che, starring Benicio del Toro as the Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara.
Sosa was the co-chair of the Earth Charter International Commission.
Awards
Sosa won the Latin Grammy Award for Best Folk Album in 2000 (Misa Criolla), 2003 (Acústico), 2006 (Corazón Libre), 2009 (Cantora 1, which also won Best Recording Package and was nominated for Album of the Year), and 2011 (Deja La Vida Volar), as well as several international awards.
In 1995, Konex Foundation from Argentina granted her the Diamond Konex Award, one of the most prestigious awards in Argentina, as the most important personality in the popular music of her country in the last decade.
Death
thumb|Mercedes Sosa lying in repose, with her family and President [[Cristina Fernández de Kirchner viewing]]
Suffering from recurrent endocrine and respiratory problems in later years, the 74-year-old Sosa was hospitalized in Buenos Aires on 18 September 2009. She died from multiple organ failure on 4 October 2009, at 5:15 am. She was survived by one son, Fabián Matus (d. 15 March 2019), born of her first marriage. The hospital expressed its sympathies to her relatives. Her website featured the following: "Her undisputed talent, her honesty and her profound convictions leave a great legacy to future generations". Thousands had queued by the end of the day.
Sosa's obituary in The Daily Telegraph said she was "an unrivalled interpreter of works by her compatriot, the Argentine Atahualpa Yupanqui, and Chile's Violeta Parra". Helen Popper of Reuters reported her death by saying she "fought South America's dictators with her voice and became a giant of contemporary Latin American music".
In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Sosa at number 160 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.
Discography
thumb|Sosa in 2005, with Argentina's then–First Lady (later president from 2007 to 2015), Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
Sosa recorded forty albums.