Maria Del Mar Bonet

She studied ceramics in the school of arts, but eventually she decided to dedicate herself to song. She arrived in Barcelona in 1967, where she began to sing with the group Els Setze Jutges. She has published many albums of folk music in Catalan, in spite of the prohibitions during Francisco Franco's dictatorship. She has performed throughout Spain as well as in the former USSR, Tunisia, Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Brazil, Sweden, Switzerland, Venezuela, Mexico, and the U.S
In 1981, Bonet recorded with Jardí Tancat in Paris, along with accompaniment by Jacques Denjean and noted Breton harpist Alan Stivell. She has worked with the Ensemble of Music Traditionelle di Tunis and Brazilian musician Milton Nascimento. She has earned the French Charles Cross Academy Prize and the Catalan Cross of San Jordi and the National Prize awarded by the Catalan government. In 1984 the French Government gave her the Charles Cross Academy Award for the best foreign record released in France.