Natalia Lafourcade

Biography

María Natalia Lafourcade Silva (Spanish pronunciation: [maˈɾi.a naˈtalja lafuɾˈkade ˈsilba]; born 26 February 1984) is a Mexican singer-songwriter. Her music combines elements of pop rock, jazz, and folk, characterized by poetic Spanish lyrics and a lyric soprano voice. She is regarded among the most influential female Latin music artists of all time.
At age 14, Lafourcade briefly joined Twist, a short-lived girl group that disbanded in 1999. She later pursued a solo career, recording several demos before releasing her self-titled debut album, Natalia Lafourcade (2002). The album and its breakthrough single, "En el 2000×En el 20008 July 2002 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracks1En el 20003:372Amarte Duele4:06", brought her widespread recognition. Her follow-up record, Casa (2005), credited as Natalia y La Forquetina, reflected alternative rock influences. After a brief hiatus from performing, Lafourcade returned with the pop-oriented Hu Hu Hu (2009), which included the single "Ella es Bonita×Ella es bonita15 May 2009 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Ella es bonita3:14". She experimented toward traditional music with Mujer Divina – Homenaje a Agustín Lara (2012), a tribute album to the renowned Mexican composer. Her fifth studio album, Hasta la Raíz×Hasta la raíz17 March 2015 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Hasta la raíz3:442Mi lugar favorito4:593Antes de huir3:544Ya no te puedo querer4:495Para qué sufrir3:496Nunca es suficiente3:597Palomas blancas4:398Te quiero ver3:299Vámonos negrito4:3610Lo que construimos4:4111Estoy lista4:4412No más llorar5:34 (2015), earned critical acclaim and commercial success, particularly for its title track and the single "Nunca Es Suficiente×Nunca es suficiente10 February 2015 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Nunca es suficiente3:57".
Lafourcade further explored folk and regional sounds in the Musas duology—Vol. 1 (2017) and Vol. 2 (2018)—and later celebrated bolero and son jarocho with Un Canto por México, Vol. 1 (2020) and Vol. 2 (2021). She incorporated elements of Latin jazz on De Todas las Flores (2022) and continued that exploration with Cancionera (2025). Her accolades include 20 Latin Grammy Awards, the most by any female artist, five Grammy Awards, and a Billboard Latin Music Award.

Early life

María Natalia Lafourcade Silva was born on 26 February 1984 in Mexico City, but grew up in Coatepec, Veracruz. Her father is the Chilean musician Gastón Lafourcade, and her mother is the pianist María del Carmen Silva Contreras. Her uncle was Chilean writer Enrique Lafourcade, a representative of the so-called "Generation of the '50s".
During her childhood, Lafourcade studied music with her mother, imitating artists such as Gloria Trevi and Garibaldi. She would be influenced by Fiona Apple, Björk and Café Tacvba as well as Ely Guerra and Julieta Venegas. Her mother studied piano with a specialty in musical pedagogy and is the creator of the Macarsi Method for musical training and personal development for children and educators. She adapted and practiced the method with Lafourcade to help her rehabilitate through music, following a head injury from being kicked by a horse.
She attended Instituto Anglo Español, a Catholic middle school, and studied painting, flute, theater, music, acting, piano, guitar, saxophone, and singing. When she was 10, Lafourcade sang in a mariachi group.

1998–2000: Early years and Twist

In 1998, Lafourcade joined a pop music group called Twist. The members included Lafourcade, Tabatha Vizuet (former member of the group Jeans), and Ana Pamela Garcés (former host of a children's television program on TV Azteca). The group was unsuccessful and they split up the following year. Lafourcade has stated that one of the things she disliked about being in Twist, and a reason she began to look for alternatives, was having to lip sync (mime) when performing.
After finishing high school, Lafourcade enrolled at Academia de Música Fermatta, where she met Ximena Sariñana, Juan Manuel Torreblanca, and Alonso Cortés, who would eventually be the drummer for La Forquetina years later.
In 2000, producer Loris Ceroni listened to the demos he had received from Lafourcade and, when she was 17, he gave Lafourcade the opportunity to be in a pop/rock group under his guidance. Lafourcade was hesitant, and Ceroni instead encouraged her to become independent. Lafourcade produced her first LP under the Sony Music label. It was recorded in Italy and was cowritten with Áureo Baqueiro. She performed in the city of Dolores Hidalgo, in a concert at the Colegio Lic. Álvaro de Osio y Ocampo, granting her recognition across the country.

2002–2004: Natalia Lafourcade and first hits

In June 2002, Lafourcade released her debut studio album, self-titled Natalia Lafourcade, a mix of pop, rock, bossa nova and Latin rhythms. The singles on the album were "Busca un Problema", her biggest hit "En el 2000×En el 20008 July 2002 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracks1En el 20003:372Amarte Duele4:06", "Te Quiero Dar", and "Mírame, Mírate". During this time, she was also the principal contributor to the soundtrack for the Mexican movie Amar te duele, recording the main theme "Amarte Duele", the acoustic version of the song, as well as adding three songs from her first album to the soundtrack: "Busca un Problema", "En el 2000", and "El Destino". She also recorded a duet with León Larregui, "Llevarte a Marte", and contributed the song "Un Pato" for the movie Temporada de patos.
In 2004, she was nominated for a Latin Grammy in the Best New Artist category for her debut album, and was nominated for Rock New Artist at the 16th Lo Nuestro Awards, losing to fellow Mexican singer Alessandra Rosaldo.
At the end of the tour for her first album, Natalia Lafourcade stopped performing as a soloist and began to perform with her band—Alonso Cortés, César Chanona, and Yunuén Viveros—as Natalia y la Forquetina.

2005–2007: La Forquetina and Casa

In 2005, she released Casa, her second album, but this time as Natalia y La Forquetina, the name of her band. Produced mostly by Café Tacuba's Emmanuel del Real, Casa presents a more mature, rock-oriented sound while retaining pop and bossa-nova influences on a few tracks, such as lead single "Ser Humano" (pop-rock) and its follow-up "Casa" (pop-bossa-nova). Áureo Baqueiro returned to produce the few tracks not produced by del Real.
On 2 June 2006, after a tour through Mexico and parts of the U.S., Lafourcade announced she would leave La Forquetina to once again work as a solo artist. Natalia y la Forquetina's final show was on 18 August 2006 in San Luis Potosí. Following the group's break-up, Casa won the Latin Grammy for Best Rock Album by a Duo or Group with Vocal in September.
Also in 2006, a documentary about the band, showing the group on the road and their travels, was aired on MTV Tr3s in the fall of 2007.
Natalia Lafourcade has also appeared on other songs with various other artists. These include Liquits' "Jardin", Kalimba's "Dia de Suerte", Control Machete's "El Apostador", and Reik's rendition of Lafourcade's song "Amarte Duele". She also reappeared with her former band on various compilation disks with previously unreleased tracks such as "Y Todo Para Que" on Intocable's X, and on the Tin Tan tribute album, Viva Tin Tan, with the hit "Piel Canela". In 2011, she made "Quisiera Saber", a music video with Los Daniels.

2007: Las 4 Estaciones del Amor

Natalia Lafourcade moved to Canada, where she met the band People Project, with whom she still frequently collaborates.
Lafourcade returned to Mexico and began to work on Las 4 Estaciones del Amor, her first instrumental album, in collaboration with the Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil del Estado de Veracruz (OSJEV). The album, under the Sony BMG label, also included a DVD where she narrated the process of making an instrumental album. She also wrote the lyrics for "Tú y Yo" from Ximena Sariñana's self-titled album.

2008–2011: Hu Hu Hu and collaborations

In 2008, she performed on Julieta Venegas' MTV Unplugged album and DVD, where she played several instruments including the bass. She was also a participant in the Red Bull Music Academy in its 2008 edition, held in Barcelona, Spain. In the same year, she began to record her fourth album, and held a concert at the Teatro Metropólitan with Juan Son, Porter's ex-vocalist.
From 2008, Lafourcade had been planning her next album, which she started on at the beginning of 2009. In May 2009, she released the album HU HU HU×Hu Hu Hu19 May 2009 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1Cursis melodías4:272No viniste4:053Siempre prisa4:534Tiempo al viento4:495Let’s Get Out4:016Hu Hu Hu2:407Ella es bonita3:198Niño hojas2:499Running Too Fast2:5510Azul6:3311Hora de compartir3:4512Un lugar para renacer4:2913Look Outside4:24, a top 10 album in Mexico. The album was produced by Emmanuel del Real (who produced Casa in 2005), Marco Moreno, and Ernesto García. It features internationally known rock and pop artists, such as Julieta Venegas and Juan Son. The first alternative single that she proposed was the song "Azul"; however, the label released the single "Ella es Bonita×Ella es bonita15 May 2009 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Ella es bonita3:14" simultaneously on the radio and in the press. The album was recommended during the summer of 2009. Lafourcade embarked on various projects. The influence of her stay in Canada and her previous album, Las 4 Estaciones del Amor×Las 4 estaciones del amor22 November 2007 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracks1Verano6:402Otoño6:353Invierno7:354Primavera7:11, is noticeable in this album. In December 2009, HU HU HU had its official presentation at the Teatro Fru Fru, in Mexico City, where it had guests such as Denise Gutiérrez of Hello Seahorse!, Furland, and Carla Morrison. It was nominated for Best Female Pop Vocal Album at the 2009 Latin Grammy Awards (won by Laura Pausini) and Best Latin Pop album at the 2010 Grammy Awards (won by La Quinta Estación). Club Fonograma also named the album the second best of 2009, and the seventh best of the decade.
She joined the non-profit project Un Techo para mi País, which aims to promote community development through the construction of temporary housing for low-income people and other social empowerment projects. She voice-acted for the role of the princess in the Spanish version of the animated film The True History of Puss 'N Boots, a French production distributed by MK2 Diffusion. There she shared credits with Kalimba and Juan José Origel.
2010 was the year of collaborations for Natalia. She recorded the song "Contigo" with the Spanish band El Canto del Loco, and the song "Quisiera Saber" with the Mexican group Los Daniels. Together with Manolo García, she performed the duet "Pájaros de Barro" and "Cursis Melodías×Cursis melodías18 September 2009 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Cursis melodías (Jacinto DJ Yeah! remix)4:57" for Lunas del Auditorio Nacional in Mexico City. In 2011, Lafourcade won the Best New Producer of the Year award in the Indie-O Music Awards, for her work with Carla Morrison's Mientras Tú Dormías... album, and a Telehit Award.
In the same year, she went on tour again, in Japan, and did so on a more instrumental plane, in which her musical and artistic growth was noted. This is how she made the documentary 14 Días en Japón, which was included in the HU HU HU reissue.
HU HU HU's tour spanned South America, Europe, the United States, Mexico, and Japan, and ended with a successful presentation at the Vive Latino 2011 Festival Iberoamericano de Cultura Musical, thus achieving a reconciliation with this audience after her unfortunate reception at the presentation in 2003. In 2012, she performed an ensemble with the Banda de Música del Estado de Oaxaca, offering a concert in the Plaza de la Danza in Oaxaca City, where she performed traditional Oaxacan songs, boleros, as well as songs from her repertoire.

2012–2014: Mujer Divina

Her album Mujer Divina – Homenaje a Agustín Lara was released 18 September 2012. For this production, Natalia was accompanied by guest musicians, with whom she reinterprets the classic songs of Lara, to be compiled on a double disc containing a DVD, recorded in the forums of her record company.
Among the guests on this album are Miguel Bosé, Leonardo de Lozanne, Gilberto Gil, the Uruguayan singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler, Café Tacvba's Emmanuel del Real, Lila Downs, the Venezuelan-American musician Devendra Banhart, the group DLD, and Kevin Johansen, the latter who participates in the song "Fugitiva", the production's first single released in digital download. With the song "Azul", featuring Rodrigo Amarante, she contributed to the soundtrack of the Mexican film Güeros.
For this album, Lafourcade obtained, in December 2013, a platinum and gold record for having over 94,000 sales.

2015–2017: Hasta la Raíz

Her next album, Hasta la Raíz×Hasta la raíz17 March 2015 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Hasta la raíz3:442Mi lugar favorito4:593Antes de huir3:544Ya no te puedo querer4:495Para qué sufrir3:496Nunca es suficiente3:597Palomas blancas4:398Te quiero ver3:299Vámonos negrito4:3610Lo que construimos4:4111Estoy lista4:4412No más llorar5:34, was released in March 2015. "Nunca Es Suficiente×Nunca es suficiente10 February 2015 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Nunca es suficiente3:57", the first single off the album, was released on 10 February. The track "Hasta la Raíz" was No. 5 of the Viral 50 Global Spotify Chart and No. 1 on the Viral 50 México chart. It is with this album that, in the sixteenth version of the Latin Grammys, it won the awards for "Song of the Year", "Best Alternative Song", and "Record of the Year" for "Hasta la Raíz", and "Best Alternative Music Album" and "Best Engineered Album".
She performed on the NPR Music Tiny Desk series on 27 October 2017. In the video's first month on YouTube, it was viewed more than 1,350,000 times. As of 25 February 2024, that same video has been viewed over 30,407,169 times.

2017–2018: Musas, Vol. 1, Vol. 2 and hiatus

On 5 May 2017, Natalia Lafourcade presented her new album, Musas, Vol. 1, accompanied by Los Macorinos, old-school musicians who previously worked with artists like Chavela Vargas. The album's first single, "Tú Sí Sabes Quererme×Tú sí sabes quererme27 January 2017 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Tú sí sabes quererme4:05", reached 22 million streams on Spotify in the first two months of its release. In this album, Lafourcade takes up the trend that began in Hasta la Raíz×Hasta la raíz17 March 2015 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Hasta la raíz3:442Mi lugar favorito4:593Antes de huir3:544Ya no te puedo querer4:495Para qué sufrir3:496Nunca es suficiente3:597Palomas blancas4:398Te quiero ver3:299Vámonos negrito4:3610Lo que construimos4:4111Estoy lista4:4412No más llorar5:34 of paying homage to the authors who have influenced her musical career. The album was certified gold in Mexico for exceeding 30,000 sales.
From 19 to 30 August, she toured Argentina, called the "Tú Sí Sabes Argentina" tour, with overwhelming success: Córdoba, Rosario, Buenos Aires, La Plata, Mar del Plata, and Mendoza were witness scenes of a walk through the music of Mexico and other regions in the Americas. On this occasion, the stages that received her were strongly attended, including two sold-out presentations at La Trastienda Club and the famous "Ballena Azul" concert hall at the CCK Centro Cultural Néstor Kirchner, which left a large number of fans outside since tickets were sold out in fifteen minutes.

At the end of 2017, Lafourcade participated in the original music for Disney-Pixar's film Coco, playing two versions of the song, "Recuérdame" in Spanish and "Remember Me" in English. For the Mexican and Latin American version, she interpreted a solo version that did not appear in the film, but was included on the album. The final version was that of Carlos Rivera. In the U.S. version, Lafourcade interprets the song together with American musician Miguel, being the main theme. This version won the Oscar for Best Original Song.

In February 2018, she released the album Musas, Vol. 2, which includes songs she personally composed, such as "Danza de Gardenias×Danza de gardenias12 January 2018 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Danza de gardenias4:23", "Hoy Mi Día Uno", and the rerelease of the protest song "Un Derecho de Nacimiento". Also included are songs by great Latin American composers, such as Álvaro Carrillo, Augusto Polo Campos, and María Grever. After the release of Musas, Volumen 2, she toured Europe, performing at the KOKO Theater in London, at the Bataclan in Paris, at the Sala Apolo in Barcelona, and in the cities of Madrid and Ferrol. After the European tour, Natalia Lafourcade appeared on the stage of the 90th Academy Awards together with Gael García Bernal and Miguel, due to the nomination of "Remember Me". The song was chosen as the winner. In mid-April 2018, she announced that she would continue with the "Musas Tour", with two concerts at the Teatro Gran Rex in Chile, Canada, and the United States, and finish the tour in Mexico. After this, she announced that she would be taking a break from her musical career.

After concluding the Musas tour, she announced that she would dedicate her time away from the stage to the reconstruction efforts of the Son Jarocho Documentation Center that was damaged after the earthquakes in Mexico in 2017. She occasionally left her break to perform at the Grammys and Latin Grammys' ceremonies.

2019–2021: Un Canto por México

As the first step for new record material, Lafourcade held press conferences from 30 September 2019 to 5 December 2019, and the music video for her single "Una vida" was published on YouTube. On 8 May 2020, Lafourcade officially launched Un canto por México, an album with a cause, since the proceeds from it were allocated to the reconstruction of the Centro de Documentación del Son Jarocho, located in the city of Jáltipan de Morelos, Veracruz, which was affected by the 2017 Puebla earthquake. Likewise, this album houses a series of collaborations by artists such as Carlos Rivera, Los Auténticos Decadentes, Jorge Drexler, Emmanuel del Real, Panteón Rococó, and Los Cojolites, a group from Son Jarocho. Un canto por México is inspired by Luis Miguel's studio album ¡México Por Siempre!.
In Lafourcade's words, the album "tastes like mole" and contains melodies from past albums as new versions, such as "Hasta la raíz×Hasta la raíz17 March 2015 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Hasta la raíz3:442Mi lugar favorito4:593Antes de huir3:544Ya no te puedo querer4:495Para qué sufrir3:496Nunca es suficiente3:597Palomas blancas4:398Te quiero ver3:299Vámonos negrito4:3610Lo que construimos4:4111Estoy lista4:4412No más llorar5:34" in the style of Son Jarocho in the company of Los Cojolites and Los Auténticos Decadentes. Other songs included are "Mexicana hermosa" in a mariachi version with Carlos Rivera, "Un derecho de nacimiento", "Ya no vivo por vivir", "Nunca es suficiente×Nunca es suficiente10 February 2015 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Nunca es suficiente3:57", "Lo que construimos", "Mi tierra veracruzana", and "Cucurrucucú paloma", among others. The video clip for the single "Mi religión" was released on 7 May 2020, and was recorded on the streets of Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende. The song focuses on Lafourcade's love of music.
On 28 May 2021, Lafourcade officially released the second part of what turned out to be a two-part series, Un canto por México, vol. 2. The profits were also donated towards the reconstruction of the cultural center of Veracruz.

2022–2024: De Todas las Flores and Live at Carnegie Hall

After traveling to Hacienda San Lorenzo in Parras, Coahuila (the oldest winery in Mexico), Lafourcade was inspired to collaborate with poet Citlali Aguilera Lira to produce the single "Tierra querida×Tierra Querida17 June 2022 · SingleSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Tierra Querida2:49." The song was released on June 17, 2022.
On October 28, 2022, Lafourcade released her first album in seven years to be composed entirely of original songs, De Todas las Flores×De todas las flores28 October 2022 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Vine solita6:262De todas las flores5:223Pasan los días6:434Llévame viento6:255El lugar correcto3:516Pajarito colibrí5:087María la Curandera6:148Caminar bonito3:579Mi manera de querer3:5410Muerte5:4911Canta la arena6:0212Que te vaya bonito Nicolás6:48. She premiered the album at Carnegie Hall on October 27, 2022. The album was produced by Franco-Mexican producer, Adán Jodorowsky, with musicians including guitarist Marc Ribot, bass player Sebastian Steinberg and drummer Cyril Atef. In 2019 and for a second time in September 2024, Lafourcade performed at the 18,000-capacity Hollywood Bowl with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

2025: Cancionera

Lafourcade released her 12th studio album, Cancionera×Cancionera24 April 2025 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube MusicTracklist · 14 tracks1Apertura cancionera5:202Cancionera5:363Cocos en la playa4:264Como quisiera quererte4:185Amor clandestino3:596Mascaritas de cristal6:267El coconito3:528El palomo y la negra7:019Cariñito de Acapulco6:3610La bruja (versión cancionera)6:0411Luna creciente6:4812Lágrimas cancioneras5:1513Amor clandestino (Acústica)4:5114Cancionera (Acústica)5:30, on 24 April 2025. The album was met with international critical acclaim for its introspective lyrics, symbolism to Mexican folk culture, and Lafourade's collaboration with several notable Latin American artists during the album's production. It was recorded live on analogue tape with 18 musicians and Lafourcade recording the songs in one take. The album was produced by Adán Jodorowsky who previously worked on her album, De Todas las Flores×De todas las flores28 October 2022 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Vine solita6:262De todas las flores5:223Pasan los días6:434Llévame viento6:255El lugar correcto3:516Pajarito colibrí5:087María la Curandera6:148Caminar bonito3:579Mi manera de querer3:5410Muerte5:4911Canta la arena6:0212Que te vaya bonito Nicolás6:48. The album's songs were heavily influenced by Lafourcade turning 40 and the golden age of Mexican cinema during the 1930s to the 1950s. Lafourcade performed throughout North America, marking her most extensive tour since 2018.

Personal life

Lafourcade lives in Coatepec, Veracruz, in the family home she grew up visiting as a child. She began singing in public at age 10. At the suggestion of a mariachi singer who commented on her lack of proper vocal technique, she sought voice lessons as a child with the goal of appearing on television. She announced on social media that she and her husband, whom she married in 2021, had gone on their honeymoon after two years of marriage but did not disclose her husband's name nor their wedding date. She enjoys painting in her spare time.
Lafourcade has two half-sisters named Katherine and Andrea, whom she reportedly did not meet until she was an adult. The song "Que te vaya bonito, Nicolás", from her studio album De todas las flores×De todas las flores28 October 2022 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Vine solita6:262De todas las flores5:223Pasan los días6:434Llévame viento6:255El lugar correcto3:516Pajarito colibrí5:087María la Curandera6:148Caminar bonito3:579Mi manera de querer3:5410Muerte5:4911Canta la arena6:0212Que te vaya bonito Nicolás6:48, is dedicated in memory of her nephew, Nicolás, who died in 2021 in an accident on a mountain. In July 2025, Lafourcade announced that she was expecting her first child, while still touring through Europe. On 23 December 2025, she announced the birth of her son.