Perla Batalla: A Letter to Leonard Cohen

While today Grammy®-nominated singer-songwriter Perla Batalla can be found sharing the stage with musicians such as Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, and Jackson Browne, it was Perla's early years touring with the celebrated Canadian poet Leonard Cohen that shaped her as an artist in her own right.

Perla was born in L.A. to an immigrant family immersed in music. Her Afro-Mexican dad was a mariachi singer, while her Argentine mom ran the family record shop called Discoteca Batalla.

Growing up there, Perla was exposed to non-stop music cutting across language and genre. Left alone in the shop after school, she began dreaming of one day becoming a singer. Against her parents' wishes, she left home at 16, studying opera during the day and performing in clubs at night.

Since then, Perla Batalla has performed in venues as varied as Sydney Opera House, Kennedy Center, Royce Hall, and Brighton Dome. She has released seven albums and cowritten and appeared in two one-woman shows: her celebrated Mestiza song cycle, exploring the intricacies of being a person of mixed race, and Blue House, an exultant Frida Kahlo musical commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and tapped for production by Ojai Playwrights Conference.

Perla has been honored with two afiliated U.N. awards: The Earth Charter Award for extraordinary devotion to social and economic justice, and The Environmental Peacebuilding Award for advancing social justice through music.