Gracias a la Vida

:"For the Joan Baez album, see "Gracias a la Vida (Joan Baez album)"."

"Gracias a la Vida" (English: "Thanks to life") is the name of a popular Spanish language folk song composed and first performed by Chilean Violeta Parra, one of the artists who set the basis for the movement known as "Nueva Canción". It was released in "Las Últimas Composiciones" (1966), the last album Parra published before committing suicide in 1967.

The song is one of Parra's most renowned and performed through the world, and remains as one of the most covered Latin American songs in history.

Legendary folk singer Joan Baez brought the song to the American audiences in 1974 when she included a cover of the song on her Spanish language album of the same name. It remains a concert staple of Baez's to this day.

Cover versions

*Mercedes Sosa on "Homenaje a Violeta Parra" (1971).
*Joan Baez on "Gracias a la Vida" (1974).
*Elis Regina on "Falso Brilhante" (1976).
*Richard Clayderman on "América Latina…Mon Amour " (1992).
*Yasmin Levy on "La Judería - Ladino meets Flamenco" (2005).
*Verónica Garay Opaso on "Así"' (2007).

External links

* [http://forum1.sewanee.edu/spanish/gracias.html "Gracias a la Vida" lyrics.]