Perla Batalla was born in Los Angeles, California, and raised by a family immersed in music; her father, a Mexican singer and D.J., her uncle in the renowned Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, and an Argentine mother who ran a bustling record store called Discoteca Batalla. At the family record shop Perla was exposed to an education of non-stop music that cut across genre and language.

After recording and touring with the legendary Leonard Cohen for over a decade on multiple world tours, Perla launched her solo career with Cohen’s encouragement. Since then she has recorded seven albums, been featured in film and television, and performed and recorded with artists such as Lou Reed, k.d. lang, John Cale, Sonny Rollins, Jackson Browne, Laurie Anderson, David Sandborn and George Duke.

The L.A. times writes, “Batalla is brilliant performing in both English and Spanish, proud of her mestiza heritage, musically adventurous, and always accompanied by impeccable performers…. above all, she is a born storyteller with a rambunctious sense of humor.” Perla’s original musical song cycle (Co-written with David Batteau) inspired by the journals of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo was selected last year for presentation at the prestigious Ojai Playwrights Conference and is currently in pre-production for a 2018-19 L.A. premier.

Perla mission of honoring her roots and exposing young audiences to the beauty of poetry and music is ongoing in her outreach endeavors throughout some of the poorest communities in the U.S. She is the recipient of the United Nation’s Earth Charter Award for “extraordinary devotion to social and economic justice”.