Ana Tijoux

Ana Tijoux, a French-Chilean songwriter, singer, MC, and recording artist recognized for her outspoken stance against social injustice alongside her dedication to nonviolence, first gained traction in the Latin American hip-hop scene as part of the groundbreaking collective Makiza in the closing years of the 1990s. Wider recognition arrived years afterward through her work as a solo performer and featured rapper, above all via the 2006 smash “Eres Para Mí,” a duet with Julieta Venegas that dominated airwaves across Spanish-speaking territories. Her inaugural solo outing, Kaos, surfaced in 2007 and was succeeded by the breakthrough release 1977 in 2009; La Bala followed in 2011 and the all-star Vengo arrived in 2014. Each of the latter three earned Grammy nominations, with La Bala additionally securing a Latin Grammy in the Best Urban Music Album category. Over the subsequent ten years she issued individual tracks, contributions to soundtracks, and joint efforts alongside Jorge Drexler, Clara Peya, and Arturo O’Farrill before returning to album-length projects with 2024’s Vida, helmed by producer Andres Celis.

Born in France to a pair of Chilean exiles who fled after the 1973 military coup that installed the repressive Pinochet regime, Tijoux entered the world in 1977 and began rapping and dancing at age eleven before relocating to Chile in 1993. She assembled her initial rap outfit, Los Gemelos, alongside fellow Chilean MC Zaturno in 1995, also working with the popular Los Tetas and subsequently co-founding the influential crew Makiza with Zaturno, DJ Squat, and additional members; their independently issued debut Vida Salvaje appeared in 1997. Sony signed the group in 1998, leading to the 1999 release Aerolineas Makiza, a re-recorded and expanded version of their first album that featured improved production plus fresh material, among them the hit single “La Rosa de los Vientos.” Makiza disbanded in 2000.

Tijoux recorded the successful duet “Lo Que Tu Me Das” with Julieta Venegas in 2003, then briefly returned to France to cut the solo track “Santiago Penando Estas,” which landed on a tribute album honoring Chilean composer, writer, and artist Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval and registered on charts in both Chile and France. She and Seo2 revived Makiza with fresh associates in 2004, issuing Casino Royale the following year before the reunion dissolved. Committing fully to solo work in 2006, Tijoux released the single “Ya No Fue,” though her planned debut album remained unreleased; a second collaboration with Venegas, “Eres Para Mi,” appeared on the latter’s successful Limon y Sal that same year. Kaos, issued on the independent Oveja Negra label in 2007, yielded the hit “Despabilate,” prompting Latin MTV Award nominations for Best New Artist and Best Urban Artist, while she and Venegas shared a Song of the Year nod. Shifting away from Latin pop and vocal performance for the most part, she delivered the 2009 hip-hop-focused breakthrough 1977, which garnered both critical praise and commercial traction; Nacional Records later licensed and reissued it in 2010, with the title track serving as its initial single. The self-released Elefant Mixtape emerged in 2011, followed by La Bala on Nacional Records in 2012, an international success that earned a Grammy nomination for Best Latin Rock, Urban or Alternative Album and a Latin Grammy for Best Urban Music Album. That year her track “1977” also featured in a season-four episode of Breaking Bad.

Most of 2013 was devoted to crafting the follow-up, an eclectic blend of soulful, horn-driven funky cumbia, throwback hip-hop, neo-soul, and Andean folk that became Vengo, released in March 2014 and likewise nominated for a Grammy. Throughout the next decade Tijoux raised two children, toured extensively, and continued releasing singles and collaborative tracks, including work with Las Manos de Filippi on their anniversary collection Sr. Cobranza 25 Años and the Latin Grammy-winning Record of the Year “Universos Paralelos” with Jorge Drexler in 2014; she additionally joined Molotov for an MTV Unplugged performance of “Hit Me.” The charting single “Cacerlazo” appeared on her independent Victoria Producciones SpA label in 2019. As the COVID-19 pandemic began, she issued several key tracks, starting with the January 2020 single “Libertad,” theme for director David Albala’s Pacto de Fuga, drawn from the true story of 49 Chilean political prisoners who tunneled to freedom in 1990 after 18 months of excavation. She moved to Spain amid the global outbreak, delivering “No Estamos Solas,” the theme for the police procedural La Juaria, in July, followed by “Antifa Dance.” That month she enlisted PJ Sin Suela for the horn-driven cumbia “Pa Que,” and in October teamed with MC Millaray on “Rebellion de Octubre.” A 2021 appearance alongside singer-songwriter Clara Peya and guest Alba Flores on “Mujer Frontera” preceded the November single “Mal.” The next year she guested on drummer Antonio Sanchez’s Shift (Bad Hombre 2), contributing to its single “La Palabra.”

Tijoux released the singles “Ninx” and “Tania,” the latter a tribute to her sister, in 2023, while also collaborating with DJ Bittman and Movimiento Original on the hit “A la Cina” and its remix. She further appeared on “Somos Sur,” the closing track of the Immersive Edition of Arturo O’Farrill and the Latin Jazz Orchestra’s Fandango at the Wall. In December she received a Harry Belafonte Fellowship from The Action Lab NYC in recognition of her social-activism work through music. January 2024 brought the self-release of Vida, her first full-length project in a decade, on Victoria Producciones SpA; produced by Andres Celis, who performed nearly every instrument, the fifteen-track album included guest appearances from iLe, Talib Kweli, and De La Soul’s Posdnuos.