Soledad

Soledad Pastorutti was born in Arequito, a small town in Santa Fe province, and started singing folklore in her teens alongside her sister Natalia. In 1995, aged fifteen, she was taken under the wing of folk musician César Isella, which led to a recording contract with Sony Music Argentina and her debut album, Poncho al Viento.

She sings chacareras, zambas and other traditional Argentine forms, usually at full volume and with a poncho, and has spent much of her career carrying that repertoire to large popular audiences rather than folk purists. Poncho al Viento became, according to Sony's own executives, the label's best-selling album ever in Argentina, and toured to more than 180 towns and cities, earning her the nickname 'Huracán de Arequito'.

Her second album, La Sole, followed in 1997 with ten concerts at Buenos Aires' Teatro Gran Rex, and by 1998 she was accompanying the Argentine national football team at the World Cup and being honoured by Sony International for a million copies sold. In 1999 she starred in the film Edad del Sol and recorded Yo sí Quiero a mi país in Miami with producer Emilio Estefan, opening markets across Latin America, the United States and Spain.

Her records move between straight folklore and arrangements closer to Latin pop, drawing on collaborators from both worlds, and she has toured internationally, performing in France, Chile and at London's Barbican Centre. Away from music she has worked as a coach on the Argentine edition of The Voice, widening her audience well beyond the folklore circuit.