Last March Alisa Amador graced the stage of The Lounge at World Café Live alongside Emily Scott Robinson and Violet Bell, who were touring behind Robinson’s 2022 Built on Bones EP, a collection of songs written for the Witches of Shakespeare’s Macbeth which features Amador and Violet Bell on all five tracks. The performance had the three acts playing the EP in its entirety, in addition to their own material, for one of the most charmingly collaborative live shows I’ve seen in recent years. However, this Saturday, December 7th, Alisa Amador will be back in The Lounge of World Café Live for her own headlining show (with support from Eliza Edens, who you may have seen one or twice earlier this year, performing as part of a trio with our phriend Louisa Stancioff).
Alisa Amador made a name for herself in 2022 when her “Milonga Accidental” became the first-ever Spanish language song to win NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Contest (It was her fifth time submitting to the contest, so don’t give up on yourselves, kids!) Prior to being awarded the honor, the bilingual singer/songwriter – who’s dubbed her sonic aesthetic “Boston Boricua Chicana Porteña Bilingual Emotional Crybaby Music” – was actually on the verge of throwing in the towel with music. But in the time since, she’s taken her live show to some pretty massive stages across the world. I ask Alisa about some of the highlights of these past two years, during a recent chat, and she tells me, “Meeting Maggie Rogers and Brandi Carlile, singing in the green room with Lake Street Dive, playing for thousands in London, and seeing strangers at shows sing along to every word of my songs.”
This current round of dates, which wraps on the 15th, are in support of Alisa Amador’s debut LP, Multitudes, which dropped this June and features collaborations with Gaby Moreno, 2019 Tiny Desk Contest winner Quinn Christopherson, and our buddy Madison Cunningham. And while the majority of Alisa’s headlining dates have her in fairly cozy listening rooms, in January she’ll be joining Lake Street Dive again and heading to the UK and Europe for nearly a month of shows in pretty sizeable venues. I ask Alisa how she enjoys playing those stages, compared to spaces like The Lounge at World Café Live, and she tells me she’s a fan of both, but there is definitely something special about the intimate shows: “Playing big stages and festivals is exhilarating, but I honestly love playing in smaller rooms. The closeness of the audience, the pin-drop hush when you play quieter songs, and the laughter and cheers during louder ones. And being able to see when people get a little dewy-eyed… nothing beats a show in a smaller listening room.”
*Get your tickets here.
