Natalia Lafourcade

María Natalia Lafourcade Silva (born 26 February 1984) is a Mexican singer and songwriter who performs in genres such as pop rock, jazz, and folk music.

María Natalia Lafourcade Silva was born on 26 February 1984 in Mexico City, but grew up in Coatepec, Veracruz, surrounded by music and art.

Her father is the Chilean musician Gastón Lafourcade, and her mother is the pianist María del Carmen Silva Contreras.

Her uncle was Chilean writer Enrique Lafourcade, a representative of the so-called "Generation of the 50s".

During her childhood, Lafourcade studied music with her mother, imitating artists such as Gloria Trevi and Garibaldi.

She would be influenced by Fiona Apple, Björk and Café Tacvba as well as Ely Guerra and Julieta Venegas.

Her mother studied piano with a specialty in musical pedagogy and is the creator of the Macarsi Method for musical training and personal development for children and educators.

She adapted and practiced the method with Lafourcade to help her rehabilitate through music, following a head injury from being kicked by a horse.

She attended Instituto Anglo Español, a Catholic middle school, and studied painting, flute, theater, music, acting, piano, guitar, saxophone, and singing.

When she was 10, Lafourcade sang in a mariachi group.

In 1998, Lafourcade joined a pop music group called Twist.

The members included Lafourcade, Tabatha Vizuet (former member of the group Jeans), and Ana Pamela Garcés (former host of a children's television program on TV Azteca).

The group was unsuccessful and they split up the following year.

Lafourcade has stated that one of the things she disliked about being in Twist, and a reason she began to look for alternatives, was having to lip sync (mime) when performing.

After finishing high school, Lafourcade enrolled at Academia de Música Fermatta, where she met Ximena Sariñana, Juan Manuel Torreblanca, and Alonso Cortés, who would eventually be the drummer for La Forquetina years later.

In 2000, producer Loris Ceroni listened to the demos he had received from Lafourcade and, when she was 17, he gave Lafourcade the opportunity to be in a pop/rock group under his guidance.

Lafourcade was hesitant, and Ceroni instead encouraged her to become independent.

Lafourcade produced her first LP under the label of Sony Music.

It was recorded in Italy and was cowritten with Áureo Baqueiro.

She performed in the city of Dolores Hidalgo, in a concert at the Colegio Lic.

Álvaro de Osio y Ocampo, granting her recognition across the country.

The singles on the album were "Busca un Problema", her biggest hit "En el 2000", "Te Quiero Dar", and "Mírame, Mírate".

During this time, she was also the principal contributor to the soundtrack for the Mexican movie Amar te duele, recording the main theme "Amarte Duele", the acoustic version of the song, as well as adding three songs from her first album to the soundtrack: "Busca un Problema", "En el 2000", and "El Destino".

She also recorded a duet with León Larregui, "Llevarte a Marte", and contributed the song "Un Pato" for the movie Temporada de patos.

Since her debut in 2002, she has been one of the most successful singers in Latin America.

Lafourcade's voice has been categorized as a lyric soprano.

In June 2002, Lafourcade released her debut studio album, self-titled Natalia Lafourcade, a mix of pop, rock, bossa nova and Latin rhythms.

In 2004, she was nominated for a Latin Grammy in the Best New Artist category for her debut album, and was nominated for Rock New Artist at the 16th Lo Nuestro Awards, losing to fellow Mexican singer Alessandra Rosaldo.

At the end of the tour for her first album, Natalia Lafourcade stopped performing as a soloist and began to perform with her band—Alonso Cortés, César Chanona, and Yunuén Viveros—as Natalia y la Forquetina.

In 2005, she released Casa, her second album, but this time as Natalia y La Forquetina, the name of her band.

Produced mostly by Café Tacuba's Emmanuel del Real, Casa presents a more mature, rock-oriented sound while retaining pop and bossa-nova influences on a few tracks, such as lead single "Ser Humano" (pop-rock) and its follow-up "Casa" (pop-bossa-nova).

Áureo Baqueiro returned to produce the few tracks not produced by del Real.

On 2 June 2006, after a tour through Mexico and parts of the U.S., Lafourcade announced she would leave La Forquetina to once again work as a solo artist.

Natalia y la Forquetina's final show was played on 18 August 2006 in San Luis Potosí.

Following the group's break-up, Casa won the Latin Grammy for Best Rock Album by a Duo or Group with Vocal in September.

Also in 2006, a documentary about the band, showing the group on the road and their travels, was aired on MTV Tr3s in the fall of 2007.

Natalia Lafourcade has also appeared on other songs with various other artists.

These include Liquits "Jardin", Kalimba's "Dia de Suerte", Control Machete's "El Apostador", and Reik's rendition of a Lafourcade song "Amarte Duele".

She also reappeared with her former band on various compilation disks with previously unreleased tracks such as "Y Todo Para Que" on Intocable's X, and on the Tin Tan tribute album, Viva Tin Tan, with the hit "Piel Canela".

In 2011, she made "Quisiera Saber", a music video with Los Daniels.