Mercedes Sosa

Referred to as "La Voz de la Gente" (the Voice of the People), Argentinean singer Mercedes Sosa has the technical precision and nuanced delivery of a classically trained vocalist, with an utter devotion to political causes, cultural pride, and human expression most associated with the folk realm. Her stirring and highly personal interpretations of other people's songs has made her the queen of the nueva canción movement, a socially progressive Latin American music scene that emerged in the 1960s (and continues today) whose songs mesh folk idioms with pointedly political lyrics in protest of the rampant human rights violations of the military dictatorships that abound. Although briefly exiled abroad in the 1980s, Sosa toured internationally, and recorded to universal acclaim right up to her death in 2009 at age 74.