Perla Batalla
Perla Batalla is a Grammy-nominated vocalist, composer and arranger who first gained international attention as a backup singer for Leonard Cohen before embarking on a solo career at the latter's encouragement. Career. Early life. Batalla was born in 1964, to an Argentinian mother, Barbara, and a Mexican father, Jorge. Her mother was a singer and her father was a mariachi musician. Her parents ran a record store called "Discoteca Batalla" in Los Angeles in the 1970s. Two years after graduating from High School, Batalla was granted a scholarship to attend the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute. From  1988, she toured as a backup singer with Leonard Cohen, who encouraged her to write her own songs. Albums. Batalla released her debut album, "Perla Batalla", on August 2, 1994, on the Warner/Discovery label. Batalla has her own music label, Mechuda Music. Like many original artists, Batalla opted to go independent early on, releasing her second album, "Mestiza" (meaning of mixed blood) on her own label. "Heaven and Earth" followed, completing the Mestiza song-cycle. Both CDs were co-written with David Batteau. They offer a vision of a vibrant culture still nourished and inhabited by mysticism, imagery, magic  and myth. Amazon named Mestiza Best Independent Release of the year. Batalla's album"Discoteca Batalla" was recorded in 2002 as an homage to her parents' record shop of the same name. Discoteca Batalla is a compilation of new compositions interspersed with treatments of traditional Spanish language classics arranged to reflect Perla's rich bi-cultural personal and musical heritage. In 2004 Perla was invited by The Kennedy Center to perform songs from the album as artist in residence. Batalla's 2007 tribute album to Cohen, titled "Bird on the Wire" (also nominated for a Grammy), was embraced by diehard Cohen  fans and critics alike. "Sing Out" magazine's Michael Tearson wrote: "Beautifully conceived and executed, Bird on the Wire is a rewarding listening experience I find myself returning to frequently. It is every bit the equal of Jennifer Warnes' classic Cohen tribute album 'Famous Blue Raincoat'. For those uninitiated to the glories of the songs of Leonard Cohen this is a wonderful introduction. For the rest of us it is simply heavenly." Her next release, "Gracias a la Vida" (2008), Batalla's next release, is her anthology of traditional South American songs inspired by a trip to meet her Argentine  family. The results are a great introduction to early Argentine tango-song. In keeping with the annual tradition of recording a holiday song with her daughter, in 2010 Batalla released a first collection of favored holiday songs titled "We Three Kings". It was chosen as KCRW's top tune for Christmas.) Trakcs on the album included "Love is Everything", "The Nearness of You", "The Very Thought of You" and "A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square". In 2011 she was commissioned by LACMA to compose and perform an original composition to celebrate the opening of "The Adventures of Women Surrealists in  Mexico and the U.S." Batalla and her songwriting partner Batteau worled on building this into a full-length theatrical concert called "Blue House". This original song cycle is inspired by the frescos, canvasses and private journals of two of the most important Mexican painters of the twentieth century, Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. The show explores the passion and process of these two rare creative geniuses, framed by a fearless love affair charged with ego, agony, betrayal and devotion. Film. Batalla made a concert film appearance in Hal Wilner's Cohen tribute, "", which featured a cast that included Rufus Wainwright , Nick Cave, Beth Orton, Antony, and Teddy and Linda Thompson. The Spanish film "Acordes con Leonard Cohen" had Perla sharing the stage in Barcelona with Jackson Browne and John Cale. Batalla has worked on the other side of the camera as well, arranging and musical directing comedic vocal scenes for Will Ferrell's "Step Brothers". Batalla has also been a vocal coach for Jeremy Piven of HBO's Entourage. Honours. Batalla received the United Nations Earth Charter Award for extraordinary devotion to social and economic justice. She is also the recipient of Border Book Festivals’, Premio Fronterizo Award for healing  work in the world.