Time: Mercedes Sosa

[Judi Lynn]

Mercedes Sosa
By M.J. Stephey Monday, Oct. 19, 2009

On a breezy night in 1979, Mercedes Sosa, the Argentine crooner dubbed "the voice of the voiceless," was arrested along with 200 of her fans during a concert in La Plata. Sosa's crime was singing out against the brutal military regime that was ruling Argentina with violence and terror and making political dissidents disappear. Were it not for her voice, Sosa would probably have vanished too. Instead, she was released and told never to return to the country. "I had no place to sing," she later recalled. "So I had to go look for applause in Europe."

Sosa, who died Oct. 4 at 74, had no trouble finding applause. By the time she returned to her homeland in 1982, mere months before the dictatorship collapsed, she had captivated audiences on five continents. And while she pined for the sights and smells of her childhood--even those that evoked memories of the death, pain and poverty she witnessed--her time in exile exposed her to entirely new styles of music. Jazz, pop and rock 'n' roll complemented her roots in Andean and tango rhythms and boosted a six-decade career in which she performed with singers as diverse as Luciano Pavarotti, Ray Charles, Shakira and Joan Baez, who was once so moved by Sosa's music that she fell to the vocalist's feet during a concert and kissed her toes. Just months before her death, Sosa released an acclaimed album, Cantora 1, which was nominated for three Latin Grammys.

In later years, Sosa went beyond her role as a musician to serve as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. But the South American troubadour never thought of herself as an activist. "All of us," she once said, "whether we are artists or military, must collaborate if we are to keep democracy on its feet and walking."

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1929225,00.html