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 Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

Biography

Betsy Pecanins was born 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, Arizona Phoenix ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Arizona#List of cities and towns, most populous city of the U.S. state of Arizona. With over 1.6 million residents at the 2020 census, it is the ...

, United States. In 1977 she emigrated to Mexico to pursue her artistic career, where she settled. In 1980 she recorded her first album, ''Viendo tus ojos''. Throughout her career she suffered the consequences of the culture of

machismo Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being " manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1940s and 1950s and its use more wi ...

prevalent in Mexico, and the lack of belief in a woman being able to be a credible musician in her own right. The musical style of Pecanins was described by blues singer

Papa John Creach John Henry Creach (May 28, 1917 – February 22, 1994), better known as Papa John Creach, was an American blues violinist who also played classical, jazz, R&B, pop and acid rock music. Early in his career, he performed as a journeyman musician w ...

as "unique. You must have black blood hidden in your body," he commented to her. Her music was employed in such films as; ''La reina de la noche'' (about the singer Lucha Reyes, where she performed the soundtrack), '' Hasta morir'', ''

Dos crímenes DOS (, ) is a family of disk-based operating systems for IBM PC compatible computers. The DOS family primarily consists of IBM PC DOS and a rebranded version, Microsoft's MS-DOS, both of which were introduced in 1981. Later compatible systems ...

'', '' 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 such as Iraida Noriega and

Regina Orozco Regina Orozco (born 18 February 1964; Mexico City, Mexico) is a Mexican actress and singer, best known for her roles in Mexican films. Orozco won an Ariel Award for Best Actress for her performance in the film ''Profundo Carmesí'' (1996). Subsequ ...

participated, among others. Pecanins had stayed away from the stages until that date due to complications caused by the

spasmodic dysphonia Spasmodic dysphonia, also known as laryngeal dystonia, is a disorder in which the muscles that generate a person's voice go into periods of spasm. This results in breaks or interruptions in the voice, often every few sentences, which can make a p ...

affecting her vocal cords. Pecanins died of a stroke at the age of 62 on December 13, 2016.

Discography

* ''Viendo tus ojos'' (Discos Pentagrama, 1980) * ''Vent amb veus'' (Discos Pentagrama, 1981) * ''Canta blues'' (1985) * ''El sabor de mis palabras'' (1987) * ''La reina de la noche'' (1994) * "Nada Que Perder" ( Discos Milan 1994 ) Betsy Pecanins • Guillermo Briseno * ''El efecto tequila'' (Discos Milán, 1995) * ''Sólo Beatles'' (Discos Milán, 1996) * ''Recuento'' (1997) * ''Esta que habita mi cuerpo'' (1999) * ''Tequila azul y batuta'' (2003) * ''Lara'' (2004) * ''Blues en el alma (2006)'' * ''Sones (2009)'' After Sones (2009), she released no further albums.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pecanins, Betsy 1954 births 2016 deaths Mexican women composers American people of Catalan descent Mexican people of Catalan descent American emigrants to Mexico People from Yuma, Arizona Blues singer-songwriters Ranchera singers Mexican jazz musicians 20th-century Mexican women singers 21st-century Mexican women singers Women in Latin music