Eva Ayllón

Eva Ayllón (born February 6, 1956 as María Angélica Ayllón Urbina) is one of Peru's foremost Afro-Peruvian musicians and one of the country's most enduring stars. Ayllón adopted the stage "Eva" from her maternal grandmother, Eva, who began teaching the young María music at an early age. As a child and teen, Eva Ayllón sang in school competitions and later on television and radio. Throughout the early 1970s, Eva appeared in many música criolla musical groups such as Rinconcito Monsefuano, La peña de los Ugarte, Los Mundialistas o Callejón and Los Kipus. By 1975, Eva began to pursue a solo singing career, touring internationally by 1979. In 1989, Eva formed Los Hijos del Sol (Children of the Sun), a supergroup made up of Peruvian musical stars in an effort to promote Peruvian music through performance and recording. To date, Eva has produced over 20 records. Her latest release is Kimba Fa, an exploration of the musical styles that she has performed over the last three decades[1]. In 2004 she released Eva! Leyenda Peruana (Eva! Peruvian Legend), which was her first album produced in the United States. Today, Eva continues to tour and lives in New Jersey with her Peruvian-American husband and childrenIn her music, Ayllón blends indigenous Peruvian, African and Spanish influences into a style known as musica criolla. Typically, Ayllón focuses on the musical genres of Peru's capital city along the Pacific coast, Lima. Ayllón is particularly known for the Peruvian music genres of the lando, the festejo, and the vals, and is known as "The Queen of Lando".