Her lyrics are messages of freedom and female empowerment. Her stage presence is imposing, full of colors and traditional Andean garments adapted to her modern style. Her sound mixes panpipes, violin, and trap bases.
Writing about societal issues may have not been what Steve Lopez envisioned for his life’s work early on in his career but it is where life’s path took him and he was wise enough to follow that destiny.
Lopez will be the first Hispanic American to win the award. He’s a four-time nominee for the Pulitzer Prize and the author of “The Soloist,” a New York Times bestseller that inspired a film of the same name starring Robert Downey Jr. as Lopez. In 2020, the Pulitzer Prize Board lauded his “purposeful columns about rising homelessness in Los Angeles, which amplified calls for government action to deal with a long- visible public crisis.”