Gina Chavez
Gina Chavez is a multi-ethnic, Austin native is a queer, Catholic, internationally-acclaimed Latinx pop artist who is redefining Latin music in Texas and beyond. A 12-time Austin Music Award winner—including 2015 Musician of the Year and 2019 Best Female Vocals—Chavez is an Austin icon. And word is getting out. With more than a million views on her NPR Tiny Desk, an hour-long PBS special, and a 12-country tour, Chavez is ready for a bigger stage.
Music and social activism have intertwined throughout Gina Chavez’s career as a Latinx bilingual folk-pop singer. Gina began writing music while living in Argentina. Later she spent eight months as a volunteer teacher in a gang-dominated barrio in El Salvador. Her single “Siete-D” is a celebration of the Salvadoran spirit in the face of gang violence. Her 2018 EP Lightbeam celebrates her love for her wife and is the expression of her coming out as a lesbian Latinx woman of Catholic faith. Gina travels frequently with the U.S. State Department as a cultural ambassador and for five years running has been an official SXSW artist.
“I very much feel my music should be about meaning something . . . at the end of the day, I do want to look back at a career of music that has told other people’s stories, has allowed a voice for the voiceless, been a platform for something greater than just me.”
Gina uses proceeds from her benefit concerts to fund college education for girls in El Salvador through her non-profit, Niñas Arriba.