Born in Lima, Peru, Baca, a three-time Latin Grammy winner, marks the 50th year of her career in 2021 with the  award-winning album, Palabras Urgentes (on Realworld).

Initially trained as a teacher, Susana Baca later began to study music, travelling along Peru’s coastline and collecting first-hand testimonies and documents from Peru’s Afro-Peruvian people. 

In 1995, Susana’s version of Maria Lando featured on the Luaka Bop album Afro-Peruvian Classics: The Soul of Black Peru. The album, and her subsequent friendship and working relationship with David Byrne, became fundamental to Susana’s musical career. Her debut solo album for Luaka Bop, Susana Baca, was released in 1997. Since then, she has made the Afro-Peruvian repertoire her own. 

Throughout the 2000s she released a number of albums for the Luaka Bop label including Eco de Sombras (2000), Espíritu Vivo (2002), Travesías (2006), Seis Poemas(2009) & Afrodiaspora (2011). During 2011 she held the post of Minister of Culture in Peru.

Part of La Linea - the London Latin Music Festival