Background
Ely Guerra’s beginnings started in unexpected circumstances. Raised in several different cities in Mexico, thanks to her dad’s soccer job, a young Guerra started writing songs as early as 9. Not only were her parents hesitant about supporting a career in music they didn’t listen to a lot of music themselves.
Guerra has stated before in interviews that:
“In my family, music wasn’t a priority. In that sense there wasn’t too much of an influence.”
Still, Guerra pursued and started making singer-songwriter music. At 15, She signed her first contract with BMG after moving to Mexico City to take music even more seriously. The album produced under this BMG contract was Ely Guerra and, unfortunately, fell on deaf ears.
Determined to persevere, Guerra finished out that contract and proceeded to sign with EMI. This situation led her to London, where she recorded her follow-up album Pa’ Morirse de Amor, which dropped in 1997. This album received wonderful reviews, demonstrated her heightened standing in the alternative rock scene in Mexico, and contained her first hit single, “Angel de Fuego.”
Time Magazine agreed. Time’s Latin American Edition put Guerra and another young alternative rock trailblazer on the cover the following year. This other artist was Julieta Venegas. During this time, Guerra moved to New York and started working on her highly anticipated third project, Lotofire. With newfound fame, the pressure was on for Guerra to deliver.
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