Concha Buika live in Chicago

Hailed as the Flamenco Queen, Buika is one of the most peculiar Spanish artists around.

Voted one of world’s 50 Great Voices by NPR, Concha Buika, born on the island of Mallorca to African immigrant parents from Equatorial Guinea, has become a true revelation to those who thought flamenco had little left to contribute to Spanish music, and to jazz.

Her evident African roots and her cosmopolitanism, developed in clubs in Spain and Americanized during a strange detour to Las Vegas as a Tina Turner impersonator, explain Buika’s rare self-possession. But nothing can quite explain her ability to connect —one of those rare and wonderful “one listen” artists.