Acclaimed musician Lhasa de Sela, who spent much of her professional life in Montreal, died of breast cancer at the age of 37 this New Years' Day. The Globe and Mail has an obit:
Music in an unfamiliar language is too often relegated to a niche genre - the marketers like to call it "world music," and others often consigned her to the cabaret or folk bins. But Lhasa spoke to all listeners, even those who did not understand the literal words of the songs; like Holiday and Tom Waits, two performers to whom she was often compared, she could reach an audience through cadence and rhythm alone, as any listener of the songs "De cara a la pared" and "Con toda Palabra" can attest. She mesmerized live audiences with her sensuality and her between-song stories.
