Live at WOMAD 2023

Liner notes

Late-afternoon on Friday 28 July, 2023 and Susana Baca and her band take to the stage in the Siam Tent at the WOMAD Festival, about to deliver one of the stand-out performances of the weekend. The hour-long set is released for the very first time on a digital-only album release, Live at WOMAD 2023, via Real World Records.

During the 11-song set, and accompanied by her faultless band, Susana Baca draws on music from across her storied musical career. From Molino Molero, Negra Presuntuosa and Caras Lindas from her self-titled debut album, via Latinoamérica – her collaboration with Calle 13 – through to La Herida Oscura, Juana Azurduy, Cariño and Sorongo from the critically acclaimed album Palabras Urgentes, her first for Real World Records.

Susana Baca is an icon of Afro-Peruvian music, but her illustrious life and career have always been grounded by her environment and her calling to serve her community and country, be it as teacher or politician. This strong social conscience and political awareness have always fed into Baca’s music.

Indeed, on the Real World Records album Palabras Urgentes it is the combination of the music’s beauty and the urgency of the lyrics that are so compelling and Live at WOMAD 2023 is no different. A masterclass in understated power, full of compassion and joy but with a steely centre, a critical eye and unwavering desire to speak truth to power. These are songs, she says, that “weave music from my deepest roots with urgent words, of hope and condemnation, to seek out a mature and cherished truth.”