Lucía

Lucía is a 23-year-old vocalist from Veracruz, México whose singular artistic vision bridges the gaps between jazz, Latin, and pop music.

Three years ago, she was a finalist at the prestigious Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition – and the first Mexican artist to enter the contest. When it came time to select the song that she would perform in the final round, she picked What a Difference a Day Makes, which was popularized by Dinah Washington but, in its initial incarnation, was a bolero written in Spanish by María Grever.

“We started it as a jazz ballad in English, then switched to Spanish and added some zapateado dancing,” she said. “My mother arrived with a contingent of fellow Mexicans to cheer me on. She told me that being able to sing in Spanish while dancing was what made me different from everyone else.”

Lucía won the competition and What a Difference a Day Makes is now the opening cut of her self-titled debut album.

Featuring an extraordinary group of musicians, including drummer Antonio Sánchez who has appeared on the LOH stage with Pat Metheny and Béla Fleck, the album includes her velvety reading of McCoy Tyner and Sammy Cahn’s You Taught My Heart To Sing and an achingly vulnerable cover of Olivia Rodrigo’s Lacy.

Lucía’s future looks bright indeed with her sparkling onstage presence and a debut album that represents the global evolution of jazz, where cultures from all over the world can dance together in harmony.