Sílvia Pérez Cruz
Sílvia Pérez Cruz is a Spanish singer and composer. In 2012, she recorded her first solo album, 11 de Novembre, which was nominated for album of the year in both Spain and France. A song performed by her, "No te puedo encontrar", received a Goya Award for Best Original Song for 2012. In 2014, she released her album Granada. Both releases have been in collaboration with Raül Fernández Miró. She received another Goya Award for best original song, for the song "Ai, ai, ai", composed and performed by her, for the film At Your Doorstep. In 2022, the Spanish Government awarded her the "Premio Nacional de la Músicas Actuales". In her latest album, Toda la vida, un día, Cruz "recreated her whole life in a single album, embarking on what would become a year-long work recorded in Barcelona, Pontós, Madrid, Jerez, Buenos Aires, Coatepec and Havana." On July 1, 2024, she performed on NPR's "Tiny Desk Concert."
Background
Cruz's parents were both singers who sang together. Her mother Glòria Cruz i Torrellas taught her to play the saxophone and piano as well as how to dance and sculpt. Her father Càstor Pérez Diz was a self-taught guitarist. She has a daughter, Lola.She went to Catalonia College of Music in Barcelona, where she received classical training studying the piano and saxophone and receiving a degree in vocal jazz. While she was at Catalonia College of Music, she and three other women founded a flamenco group called Las Migas. They combined their different musical approaches to create a new type of flamenco. It was not long after this that she became well known in the Spanish music scene.
Cruz told NPR that a song must have a story. She believes that her view of songs as stories comes from her mother who was a singer and storyteller. Her mother, she said, also viewed songs as stories.