Hell and welcome to a spotlight on Ana Tijoux, an artist you may remember from such TV montages as

Born in France to Chilean parents in exile from the regime of Augusto Pinochet , it’s no surprise that her music is cosmopolitan (She raps in Spanish , French and occasionally English) and frequently highly politicized.

Tijoux returned to Chile in 1993 after the country’s return to civil power. She performed with several rap groups eventually becoming a founder member of Makiza.

Makiza lasted 9 years , during which time Tijoux worked on several other collaborations with , among others, the Chilean group Barrio Santo and the Mexican singer Julieta Venegas.

Makiza became an increasingly loosely held together group and their final album Casino Royale only had Tijoux and the MC Seo2 from the original lineup.
After it’s release , the group split permanently and Tijoux began work on her first solo album. Unfortunately, due to problems with her record label this was never released.

In January 2007 Tijoux again collaborated with Julieta Venegas on the single ‘Eres Para Mi’

The song was a huge success , gaining several number ones and reaching the top ten in seven countries.

She followed this with her first released solo album Kaos which performed well in Chile and received a Latino MTV award nomination for the lead single Despabilate

In 2009, with the release of 1977 she reached the American and European markets not least with the title track (Which is where we came in)

The album was a much less ‘pop’ , more old school rap album than her debut and collaborations and gained much international respect , gracing many ‘best of year’ lists (Including one by Thom Yorke, oddly enough)

She continues to write cool, jazz infused songs with a current of political thought such as Los peces grandes no puedo volar (Big Fish Can’t Fly)
And , from her latest album Vengo, Antipatriarca