“Think Joan Armatrading, Joni Mitchell and Nina Simone all rolled into one…blurs the lines between Jazz, Folk and intelligent Pop…strong and heartfelt”

Lili Añel considers music a calling. This striking six-foot tall singer-songwriter-musician grew up in New York City’s Spanish Harlem, where she discovered her passion for music. As a child, Lili remembers singing along to her mother’s Cuban, jazz and pop-standard albums. It was also her mother who supported Lili’s desire to join the church choir. However, it was her Afro-Cuban grandfather’s recognition of how much joy her singing brought others, being the voice that stood out in that choir, which served to set her feet firmly on the path of a career in music.

After establishing a music career and a large following in New York in the vibrant 1980s Greenwich Village singer-songwriter scene, she relocated to Philadelphia in 2004. It was from her new home base where she continued to move audiences with her songs, now more jazz-inspired, highlighting themes reflecting her hope for the future, standing in her truth of life’s difficulties and conjuring the strength for perseverance. All delivered with that unique voice, alternating between low reaches one feels in their center and a sweeter, more vulnerable falsetto.