Gala Évora is a Spanish

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 singer and actress who has recorded a number of hit songs and received two of her country's top acting nominations for her leading role in the 2007 biopic, Lola.

Family tradition

A native of the southern Andalucían town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda

Sanlúcar de Barrameda

Sanlúcar de Barrameda is a city in the northwest of Cádiz province, part of the autonomous community of Andalucía in southern Spain. Sanlúcar is located on the left bank at the mouth of the Guadalquivir River opposite the Doñana National Park, 52 km from the provincial capital Cádiz and...

 in Cádiz province

Cádiz (province)

Cádiz is a province of southern Spain, in the southwestern part of the autonomous community of Andalusia, the southernmost part of continental Western Europe....

, Gala Évora was born into an artistic family (the Sanlúcar Évoras) with a long tradition in the world of entertainment. Her father, José Miguel Évora, is a music producer, and the guitar artist Manolo Sanlúcar

Manolo Sanlúcar

Manolo Sanlúcar is a flamenco composer and guitarist born in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in 1945. He is considered one of the most important Spanish composers of present times, and together with Paco de Lucía, Serranito, and Vicente Amigo, one of the main figures in the evolution of the flamenco...

 is her uncle. At the age of eight, she made her film debut, playing a small, unbilled role in El día que nací yo, a 1991 vehicle for star Isabel Pantoja

Isabel Pantoja

Isabel Pantoja is a popular contemporary Spanish singer. She is of Romani origin, born in the Triana district of Seville, Spain. She has released more than a dozen albums throughout a career spanning many decades, and is known for her distinctive Andalusian style.-Biography:She was born into a...

.

Performing career

She has performed as a member of the pop group Papá Levante and was a chorus member for headliner singers such as Carmen Linares

Carmen Linares

Carmen Linares is the stage name of Carmen Pacheco Rodríguez. Born in 1951 in Linares, Jaén Province, she is known as one of the finest flamenco singers in Spain.She came to Madrid with her family in 1965...

, Enrique Morente

Enrique Morente

Enrique Morente Cotelo, known as Enrique Morente, was a flamenco singer and a controversial figure within the world of contemporary flamenco...

, Camarón de la Isla

Camarón de la Isla

Camarón de la Isla , was the stage name of a spanish flamenco singer José Monje Cruz who is sometimes also credited as Camarón de la Isla....

 and Falete

Falete

Rafael Ojeda Rojas alias Falete is a gay gypsy flamenco singer from Seville, Spain.His father is a member of the musical group Cantores de Híspalis, and he made his debut in the Teatro Lope de Vega, Seville when he was 15 years old, dedicating his performance to La Chunga.In the 1990s, he took...

. At the end of 2000, her own debut album with the group, Tomalacaté, with hit songs Me pongo colorada and Practicar sexo sold over a quarter of a million copies and was listed as a contender for the highest-grossing Spanish album of the year. In 2001, Papá Levante was awarded Premio Ondas as the best new Spanish music group and her performances in their 2003 album, Sopla levante, with its two noted singles, "Comunicando" and "Gorda" also met with success, as did the 2005 album, Pa ti, pa mí, with the hit first single, "Chiquilla". Her first solo album, Agua y luz, includes six songs by Carlos Sanlúcar, and versions covered by Salif Keita

Salif Keita

Salif Keïta is an internationally recognized afro-pop singer-songwriter from Mali. He is unique not only because of his reputation as the Golden Voice of Africa, but because he has albinism and is a direct descendant of the founder of the Mali Empire, Sundiata Keita...

, Quique González

Quique González

Quique González Enrique González Morales, better known as Quique González, is a Spanish singer/songwriter known throughout the continent for his approachable and natural writing style...

, Lila Downs

Lila Downs

Lila Downs is a Mexican singer-songwriter. She performs her own compositions as well as tapping into Mexican traditional and popular music...

 and Luis Pastor. The album begins with "Al otro lado del mundo" and includes "Tengo un amor", "Sabré que eres tú" and "Agua de rosas", composed for Lila Downs' Mexican

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 album, while "Quiero volar" is a blend of flamenco

Flamenco

Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....

 rhythms.

In 2007, Gala Évora was cast in the title role of Miguel Hermoso's film, Lola, a biographical portrait of Spain's famed Romani singer, dancer and actress Lola Flores

Lola Flores

María Dolores "Lola" Flores Ruiz was a Spanish singer, dancer, and actress.- Professional career :Flores was born in Jerez de la Frontera, Cadiz . Although thought to be only part gypsy, she strongly identified with the Spanish gypsy culture...

, which gained her a Goya

Goya Awards

The Goya Awards, known in Spanish as los Premios Goya, are Spain's main national film awards, considered by many in Spain, and internationally, to be the Spanish equivalent of the American Academy Awards....

, Spain's equivalent of the Oscar

Academy Awards

An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

, nomination as Mejor Actriz Revelación [Best New Actress] and a Spanish Cinema Writers Circle Awards nomination as Premio Revelación [Best New Artist]. The film has played at a number of European venues and was chosen as the opening entry at the Málaga Film Festival. The following year she was chosen for a role in Pilar Távora's film adaptation of Santiago Escalante's play Madre amadísima.

Discography as Papá Levante member

• Tomalacaté, 2000
• Sopla Levante, 2003
• Pa Ti Pa Mí, 2005

Sources

• Rolfe, Pamela. "Orphanage 'Roses' lead Goya noms". The Hollywood Reporter (18 December 2007)

External links