The performance of the legendary Afro – Peruvian singer Susana Baca opens the musical programme of the BELEF 2007. The protégée of David Byrne (Talking Heads) and his label Luaka Bop, is the winner of the most prestigious Latin American prize Grammy for musical achievements. She is considered to be the world’s greatest music diva next to Caesaria Evora and Omara Portuondo.

Subtle playing with emotions and delicate nuances of sound makes the concerts of the barefoot Susana Baca a unique and personal experience that each one of us has to feel for himself. Global breakthrough followed in 1995, in the third decade of her career, after the compilation "The Sound of Black Peru" and the triumphant interpretation of "Maria Lando". The album "Lamento Negro" of 2002 won her the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.

Susana’s latest album "Travesias" is one of the testamentary releases of black Peruvian music, which is equally based on the Afro-Creole musical heritage (landó, vals), authentic South American influences and even distant echoes of the blues.

Her poetical interpretation is filled with lyrical images based on poems of leading South American poets. Delicate, dedicated vocal expression is in a perfect harmony with her elegant appearance on the scene, when she silently slides among the musicians playing traditional instruments, like cajon, guapeo or quijada. The dedication to the emotional interpretation is so deep that we can freely call it a specific spiritual experience.

Along with her husband, a Bolivian ethnomusicologist Ricardo Pereira, she founded in her native Chorrillos "Instituto Negrocontinuo", an organization dedicated to collecting, preservation and nourishment of the unique culture, music and dance, which were developed in the territory of Peru by the descendants of the black slaves.