Vivir Quintana

Vivir Quintana is a Mexican singer-songwriter, activist and normalista with one of the most beautiful and powerful voices of her generation. She grew up in Coahuila, Mexico. She is the daughter of normalista teachers and has two brothers. At the age of 11, in a school contest, she realized she could sing and at the age of 12 she started taking guitar lessons in a park in her town. She lived the first 28 years of her life in northern Mexico, where she was influenced by regional Mexican music and, in particular, corridos. The main female musical references she listened to since she was a child are Lola Beltrán and Mercedes Sosa.

She moved to Saltillo to study at the Escuela Normal Superior with a major in Spanish and taught for 5 years in high schools located in the outskirts of the city. During that time, one of her friends from the Normal School was a victim of femicide. Years later, Vivir managed to resignify what happened then and never stopped wondering what would have happened if her friend had been able to defend herself that day from her aggressor, would she have had to visit her in prison?

In 2006, he entered the Escuela Superior de Música de Saltillo and majored in piano. He worked in a mariachi band, where he learned even more about Mexican popular music, explored with other instruments such as the vihuela, accordion and violin, and began to reflect strongly on the lyric and the messages conveyed by the songs. He sang covers in different cultural scenarios, bars and cafes.

She arrived in Mexico City in 2012 and joined the composition workshop of the Society of Authors and Composers of Mexico (SACM) between 2013 and 2015. She continued working on her project from the independent scene, thus relating to other musical proposals, in particular, women in music. She composed dozens of songs during these years. In 2020 she was invited by Mon Laferte
she was invited by Mon Laferte to sing a song about feminicide on March 7 at the Zócalo in Mexico City. Since then, millions of women have taken her ‘Canción sin miedo’ as an anthem of feminism around the world. She collaborates with Mexican and international organizations for the defense of human rights.

In 2022 he signed with the record company Universal Music Group Mexico and in 2023 released his first album ‘Te mereces un amor’. His songs are a fusion of folk, regional and ranchera music with lyrics full of freedom, love and poetry. He has shared stages with artists such as Aterciopelados, Caifanes, Manuel García, Silvio Rodríguez, among many others.

Vivir Quintana was named Spotify’s EQUAL ambassador (2023). She is recognized as part of the 100 most creative Mexicans by Forbes Mexico and as “one of the most recognized female figures in our country” by Rolling Stone in Spanish.

As part of the recognition of her career and its impact on society, The Latin Recording Academy® paid tribute to Vivir Quintana’s career and activism on behalf of women by awarding her the “Leading Ladies of Entertainment 2024,” one of the most important awards in the industry, which was presented to her by two icons of Latin song – and also Leading Ladies of Entertainment in previous years – Monica Velez and Mon Laferte.

Currently, she is releasing singles included in her second album, which consists of corridos that tell the stories of women who find themselves in prison for defending themselves from their aggressors, among them are “Mi Casita”, “Al Tiro, ‘Mi Cobija’ and ‘La Noche Buena Más Triste’.
Saddest Christmas Eve. Being stories told in the first person, Vivir resignifies the corrido to tell real stories of women, using their voices as transportation and awareness of the reality that the country is going through.