Betsy Pecanins | id

Elizabeth Taylor Pecanins (1954 - December 13, 2016) was an American-born Mexican singer, songwriter and record producer. Known in Mexico as Queen of the Blues although she played others in her career as ranchera and jazz.

Betsy Pecanins was born in Yuma, Arizona, USA, to a Catalan mother and an American father and grew up in an art-conscious family. For example, her mother Ana María Pecanins and her aunt Teresa founded the Galería Pecanins art gallery in Mexico City and Barcelona. She spent her first years in Phoenix, United States. In 1977 she emigrated to Mexico to pursue his artistic career, where he settled. In 1980 he recorded his first album, Viendo tus ojos. Throughout her career she suffered the consequences of the machismo prevailing in Mexico, due to the annoyance that a woman can lead its own artistic project.

Quality of Pecanins as an interpreter was described by blues singer Papa John Creach as "unique. You surely have black blood hidden in the body," he commented to her. His music was used in films such as La reina de la noche (about the singer Lucha Reyes, which she made his soundtrack), Hasta morir, Dos crímenes, Cilantro y perejil and Asesino en serio.

On August 29, 2015, she received a tribute to her artistic career at Teatro de la Ciudad Esperanza Iris in Mexico City, where singers like Iraida Noriega and Regina Orozco participated, among others. Pecanins had stayed away from the stages until that date due to the complications caused by the spasmodic dysphonia affecting her vocal cords.

She died in Mexico City, due to a stroke on December 13, 2016.

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