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Grammy award winning artist Julieta Venegas will be performing an unplugged set at the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage this Tuesday, September 8. Julieta Venegas is one of the most prolific artists in the world with critically acclaimed records, a Grammy and two Latin Grammys…all at the ripe old age of 36. The Kennedy Center has a great bio of her up on their site:

Julieta Venegas, born on November 24, 1970, in Tijuana, Mexico, is the daughter of two photographers and is one of five siblings. Ms. Venegas embarked on her musical journey at a young age, studying piano from the age of eight. In addition to piano, she also studied musical theory, singing, cello, and violoncello at La Escuela de Música del Noroeste, while also crossing the U.S. border to study at South Western College in San Diego — all of this before she even graduated from high school. During her later school years she began playing with various bands, including Grupo Chantaje and Tijuana No!

At 22, Ms. Venegas moved to Mexico City, where she hoped to involve herself with the city’s vibrant music scene. Given her talent and beauty, it didn’t take her long to make acquaintances. She also began writing music for plays around this time and she took up the accordion. Ms. Venegas then started a band called La Milagrosa, enlisting Fratta and Rafael González, but when she was offered a contract with BMG, she dropped the idea of forming a band and began work on her solo debut, Aquí (1997).

In addition to writing the songs on Aquí and singing them, Ms. Venegas also played the accordion, piano, and guitar; a number of guests also played on the album. BMG released the album in the United States and Spain as well as throughout Latin America, and it won critical acclaim in all corners. After this, she found time to write and record her second album, Bueninvento (2000). A bit of a departure from her debut, Bueninvento is a full-fledged rock en español album and features a backing band of veteran session men.  She received her first Latin Grammy nominations: Best Rock Song for “Hoy No Queiro” and Best Rock Album for Bueninvento.

Venegas subsequently settled down in Madrid and Buenos Aires to record her third album, Sí (2003), which took off commercially, going triple platinum in Mexico, topping the album chart there and breaking into the Top Five on the stateside Latin albums chart, and spawning four big hits. The success of Sí led to a Latin Grammy for Best Rock Solo Vocal Album in 2004. For her next album, Limón y Sal (2006), the accolades continued: a Grammy in 2007 for Best Latin Pop Album, a Latin Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Alternative Music Album, and a MTV Video Music Award in 2006 for Best Solo Artist. In 2008, Venegas released an MTV Unplugged album.

This is a great opportunity to see a great artist at a great venue and on top of that, it’s free (and she’s cute as hell on top fo that). Check out the video playlist put together and come out tomorrow. See y’all there.

Links
Julieta Venegas
Julieta Venegas on MySpace
The Kennedy Center Millennium Stage

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