Yungchen Lhamo: Legendary Tibetan Singer.
Alaska: Photo By Tenzin Shaydrup
Yungchen Lhamo was born and raised in Lhasa, Tibet. Her name, which translates as ‘Goddess of Melody,’ was given to her by a lama at birth. In 1989 she made the month-long, 1,200-mile journey across the Himalayan Mountains to Dharamsala, India, in order to pursue her dreams. Yungchen later moved to Australia, where she began to sing prayers of meditation that inspired her to record her first album, ‘Tibetan Prayer’, which won the Australian Recording Industry Award (ARIA) for Best World Music Album in 1995.
Yungchen was then signed by Peter Gabriel’s Real World Records label on which she released three more albums: ‘Tibet, Tibet’ (1996), ‘Coming Home’ (1998), and ‘Ama’ (meaning ‘Mother’), featuring Annie Lennox on ‘Fade Away’ and Joy Askew on ‘Tara’ (2006). In 2013 Cantaloupe Music released her fifth album, ‘Tayatha’ (meaning ‘It Is Like This’), a meditational collaboration with Russian classical pianist Anton Batagov.
Now, in March 2022, she is releasing her long-awaited sixth album, ‘Awakening’, through Six Degrees Records, with the title track released as a single on 4th February.
With this album, Yungchen, who now lives in Upstate New York, explores the relevance of compassion-based spirituality to our modern-day, interdependent lives – each song reflecting topics that have become ever-more highlighted by the Covid-19 pandemic. She says: “‘Awakening’ aims to appeal to those of any religion, or of none, who are interested in sound healing and spiritual awakening. It is also my first album to include a song in Mandarin. I truly believe that voice has a vibrational energy to connect, empower, heal and transform all human beings. I hope these new songs will help bring inner peace and true happiness to everyone who hears them. ‘Awakening’ has a strong Spanish influence and is therefore quite different in character from my previous albums.”
Yungchen has performed, acapella or accompanied, in numerous countries on all five continents, including at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, New York; Royal Festival Hall and Royal Albert Hall, London; National Concert Hall, Dublin; The Louvre, Paris; Philharmonic Hall, Berlin; International Performing Arts Centre, Moscow; The Vatican, Rome; and the Sydney Opera House. Others include the 1997 Lilith Fair festival, many WOMAD festivals, rock concerts, and benefit concerts. She has also contributed soundtracks to many films, including the 1997 film ‘Seven Years in Tibet’ starring Brad Pitt, and the recently released documentaries ‘Mission: Joy’ and ‘Better Living Through Chemistry’.
She has performed or shared a stage with numerous well-known artists, including Philip Glass, Michael Stipe, Billy Corgan, Beastie Boys, Peter Gabriel, Natalie Merchant, Sarah McLachlan, Sheryl Crow, Jewel, Bill T Jones, Laurie Anderson, Sir Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Lou Reed, Peter Rowan, U2, Paul Brady, and Sinead O’Connor.
In 2004, Yungchen established the One Drop of Kindness Foundation, formally known as the Yungchen Lhamo Charitable Foundation, which is dedicated to improving the welfare of human beings in need, regardless of borders, through direct action.
