Balas y Chocolate —Bullets and Chocolate— is the eleventh album by Mexican singer-songwriter Lila Downs. Released on March 24, 2015 by RCA Records. US release on April 14, 2015. After a flurry of unexpected album content leaks, including three early demos in February 2015, the record's release was locked in for March 2015, and the track "Balas y Chocolate" was officially released onto MTV on February 24, 2015, "Patria Madrina" it will be released as the album's lead single.
Background and development
Following the release of her seventh studio album, Pecados y Milagros, Downs embarked on Pecados y Milagros World Tour to promote it. The tour visited America, Europe, Asia a number of new venues. In 2012, the singer commented that she was beginning to compose songs for her next album. In May 2014, Downs confirmed that she had started working on her eighth studio album, saying that her next album would be titled Balas de chocolate. But she refrained from disclosing the official name and collaborators, commenting that it was inspired by the "Day of the Dead" as it was a very important date for her indigenous grandmother and remembering the death of her father when she was 16 years old. In June 2014, Downs confirmed that she would begin recording the album the following month. She would use it to remember her childhood, which was marked by various musical influences among which are The Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. Later she released names of some of the songs that make up the album as well as the title. She explained why she had decided to put that name to the new album ''The concept is that you call Balas y Chocolate for things that live: we are among those ideas bullets and excesses, but also the chocolate remains and symbolizes our strength; it's a bit like corn represents what we are Mexicans, in Mayan and Olmec culture that is very important". On March 5, 2015, the album cover was released and also the collaborations on this record among which include Juanes and Juan Gabriel. "I have invited Juanes like three times... we've been wanting to work with him for a long time, partly because I am very fond of Colombia, the work of Juanes and his person!". One side of the cover has a lenticular in which, on one side, Downs appears posing in an archaeological center of Oaxaca, and the other side is a skull-shaped drawing by plastic artist Humberto Valdez. The booklet is full of abstract images representing each of the songs that are strongly related to the current Mexican society, and also includes a poster with the route of Lila Downs referring to the "Dearly Departed". demos of several songs from the album were broadcast online by the channelLive Nation by Yahoo! Screen during a concert that featured the singer on August 11, 2014 at the House of Blues in Chicago. On February 3, 2015, the song "Humito de Copal" was leaked but removed from the internet hours later. In early March 2015, "Patria Madrina" and "Balas y Chocolate" were released.
