“We played ‘What a Difference a Day Makes,’ which was popularized by Dinah Washington, but in its initial incarnation was a bolero written in Spanish by María Grever,” she says from her home in New York City. “We started it as a jazz ballad in English, then switched to Spanish and added some zapateado dancing. My mother arrived with a contingent of fellow Mexicans to cheer me on. She told me that being able to sing in Spanish while dancing was what made me different from everyone else.”

Lucía won the competition, and the fact that she did it with such a soulful, multicultural rendition of a jazz standard also marked her arrival on the music scene. “What a Difference a Day Makes” is now the opening cut of the self-titled Lucía, an exquisite debut album that showcases the luminous qualities of her voice, and her superb technique and versatility.

From her velvety reading of McCoy Tyner and Sammy Cahn’s “You Taught My Heart To Sing” and an achingly vulnerable cover of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Lacy” to a mournful “Alfonsina y el Mar” and a version of “Veracruz” that brims with Lucía’s Mexican pride, the album finds the emerging singer surrounded by a cadre of jazz virtuosos: Venezuelan pianist Edward Simon, American double-bassist Larry Grenadier, Mexican drummer Antonio Sánchez, and Puerto Rican saxophonist David Sánchez. The session was helmed by visionary producer Matt Pierson, known for his work with legends such as Brad Mehldau, Milton Nascimento, and Samara Joy.

“There was a moment in the studio when we were recording ‘Veracruz’ and I just started to cry,” Lucía recalls. “It was that line about Veracruz shimmering in my soul, and the need to return to its distant beaches. I had sung that beautiful Agustín Lara song in choir during elementary school, and suddenly here I was, making a record with Antonio Sánchez and Larry Grenadier standing next to me. Matt asked me if I was OK, and I explained that I was crying out of sheer happiness.”

Her innate talent was nurtured from a very young age. Born in Veracruz, Lucía Gutiérrez Rebolloso began performing at age two, together with her parents Laura Rebolloso and Ramón Gutiérrez and their acclaimed Son de Madera, a son jarocho ensemble. She grew up surrounded by fandangos and the son jarocho community, and is also the niece of Quetzal Flores, founder of the Los Angeles-based Chicano rock band Quetzal. Most importantly, Lucía’s parents played many records at home – from the salsa nuggets of El Gran Combo to the Latin folk of Mercedes Sosa and the healing Soul sides of Aretha Franklin.

“I never had a Justin Bieber phase,” she laughs. “I was eight years old and was already obsessed with The Beatles, Nina Simone and Sarah Vaughan. I wasn’t allowed to watch TV, which resulted in a few tantrums, but now I’m grateful about that because those choices expanded my horizons.”

After getting a degree in Jazz Studies from the university of Veracruz, Lucía contributed vocals to Mexican singer/songwriter Natalia Lafourcade’s De Todas Las Flores – one of the key Latin albums of the 21st century. She also performed with Lafourcade at Carnegie Hall (as well as being a backup singer on tour for two years), an experience that had a massive effect on her carving out her own path.

“I got really nervous minutes before going onstage,” she admits. “Our performance involved zapateado, and I was scared of falling down. This was uncharted territory for me, and anything could go wrong. But when I saw Natalia singing alone with her guitar in front of thousands of people, any signs of nervousness faded away. At that moment, I decided to invest everything I had into my performance.”

With the release of her debut album coming up in May 2025, Lucía is planning a tour across Europe and the Americas that will present her unique approach to her songbook to the world. The combination of traditional American jazz with the warmth of Latin folk remains at the core of her identity – both as a person, and a vocalist.

“If sticking to jazz standards is your thing, then that’s incredibly cool,” she says with the relentless positivity that defines her in conversation. “I love all that stuff so much, but there is also another side of me that resonates deeply whenever I go to a fandango party or a son jarocho concert. I wouldn’t be true to myself if I just did an album of songs in English. Fortunately, Matt (Pierson) appeared and connected with my vision immediately.”

She pauses for a minute, and smiles. “I was in love with jazz and doing big band recitals, but on my debut album, I managed to fuse that sound with my own roots in a very organic way,” she says. “I wanted to generate a musical project that would paint an accurate picture of who I really am.”

Lucía’s future looks bright indeed with her sparkling onstage presence and a debut album that represents the global evolution of jazz, where cultures from all over the world can dance together in harmony.