Guadalupe Urbina

Urbina was born and raised in Sardinal, Guanacaste as the youngest of ten children of Nicaraguan immigrants to Costa Rica.[1][2] She was born into a rural household with no electricity, and did not own shoes until she was eleven years old.[1]

Her first experience with music was through her mother Angelita Juárez, who introduced her to the oral tradition of Guanacaste, and the ranchera music she heard on the radio when she was an infant.[3] By the time she was eight years old, she had become a frequent performer at family events, with the large repertoire of traditional stories, songs, and rhythms she had learned from her mother or from local radio station broadcasts.[2][1] When she was eleven years old, her mother died, and she was sent to San José to live with her older sisters.[1] In San José, she was influenced by world music and the counterculture movement, listening to Joan Baez and the Latin American music of the 1970s.

When Urbina was sixteen years old, she learned to play guitar and began to hone her skills as a poet and singer-songwriter.[4] She attended the National University of Costa Rica in the city of Heredia to study music and guitar, where she won the first prize at the university song festival two years in a row.[1]

In 1988, Urbina performed at the Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica as a part of the Amnesty International Human Rights Now! tour.[5] She received a Gaviota award from the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Spain, in 1994 for her work with oral tradition.[6] A year later, she was presented with the Premio América from Radio France by Youssou N'Dour.[4]

In the mid-1990s, Urbina moved to the Netherlands. After her move, she continued composing music, combining her own musical compositions with the traditional songs of Guanacaste folklore that she encountered in her research. Her 2001 album Garden of Eden was published by world music record labels such as Putumayo World Music.[7] She returned to Costa Rica in the early 2000s.[7] In 2011, she performed a collection of works of the oral tradition of her birthplace of Guanacaste at the National Theatre of Costa Rica, where she first performed in 1989.[8]

Urbina has made tours in Latin America, the United States, and Europe. In Costa Rica, she has shared the stage with various different singers and musical groups including Bernardo Quesada, Patricio Barraza, Malpaís, Adrián Goizueta, Luis Ángel Castro, Manuel Monestel, Cantoamérica, María Pretiz, Rubén Pagura, and Manuel Obregón. She has shared the stage with international artists including Guillermo Anderson, Daniel Viglietti, Los Folkloristas, Youssou N'Dour, Lokua Kanza, Tracy Chapman, Bruce Springsteen.[3] She is known in Spain both for winning a Gaviota award from Madrid's Círculo de Bellas Artes and for her frequent television appearances in Madrid, such as on the RTVE program Sonidos étnicos.[9]

In 2002, Urbina was given a diagnosis of brain cancer while in Europe, and underwent treatment in Belgium.[1]

She currently lives in Costa Rica.[3] There, she directs the Fundación Voz Propia, an organization which supports the development of the arts in young people.[6]

• 100 Varas Al Sur Del Herediano (1995, with Callejeros)
• De Todos Modos (1996, with Callejeros)
• Garden of Eden (2001)[7]
• Trópico Azul De Lluvia (2002)
• La Madremonte: ritmos, cantos y cuentos (2002)
• Al Menudeo (2002)
• Cancionero Tradicional Anónimo De Guanacaste: "Sones de Tierra Caliente" (2011)
• Mis Canciones Que Te Gustan (2012)

• Benito, Pánfila y el Perro Garrobero (Costa Rica, 2002)
• Al Menudeo (Spain, 2003)
• Palabras de Larga Noche (Costa Rica, 2014)[11]

• Official website