Magaly Solier, Peruvian actress and singer, will be designated UNESCO Artist for Peace on June 26th. UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova made the designation “in recognition of her efforts to protect and promote indigenous languages and music throughout her artistic career and for her commitment to the ideals of UNESCO.”
Born in a Quechua family in the Huanta Province (Ayacucho region), Peru, Magaly Solier Romero worked in the fields with her parents and brothers. She started her singing career when she won a prize at the Ayacuchana Song Festival in 2003. A year later, she had her first acting role in the Peruvian movie, Madeinusa, directed by Claudia Llosa. Thanks to this first full-length feature film, she was doubly awarded “Best actress” in 2006: at the Cartagena de Indias Film Festival in Columbia and at the Montreal Ibero-Latino-American festival in Canada.
In 2009, she acted in Claudia Llosa’s movie Fausta (La Teta Asustada), which brought her worldwide recognition. She then received roles in Altiplano, directed by Peter Brosens and Jessica Woodworth, and in Amador, directed by Fernando León de Aranoa. This movie was entered in the Guadalajara International Film Festival in Mexico, where Ms Solier received the “Best Actress” award. That same year she released her first album – Warmy. Most of the songs are sung in Quechua and it was awarded “Best Music Album” in Peru.
In 2014, she released her second album, Coca Quintucha, which includes Andean traditional songs performed in Quechua. Following the album’s release, she performed several concerts in indigenous languages such as Quechua, Aymara, Ashaninka and Muchik.
Magaly Solier’s artistic career reflects her commitment to peace, human rights, social justice, environmental protection, and rights for children to study in their mother tongue. Through her creations, she also expresses her support for the struggle against gender inequality and violence against women. One of her missions as a UNESCO Artist for Peace will be the promotion of the Year of Indigenous Languages in 2019, as well as the promotion of the UNESCO Atlas of languages, which is being prepared.
UNESCO Artists for Peace are internationally-renowned personalities who use their influence, charisma and prestige to help promote UNESCO’s message and programmes. UNESCO works with these distinguished personalities in order to heighten public awareness regarding key development issues and to inform the public what our Organization's action is in these fields.
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The nomination ceremony will take place at 1:00 pm at the 7th Floor Restaurant. Journalists wishing to attend the event are requested to contact UNESCO’s Media Section.
Contact: Djibril Kebe, d.kebe@unesco.org ; +33 (0) 1 45 68 17 41