When Buika walks on stage this Saturday, May 12th, at the Fillmore Miami Beach, she will be the center of gravity. The lights will fix on her petite, yet athletic figure and the audience will stand, and remain standing, for the duration of the performance. She will flash her signature, gap-toothed smile and give the applauding crowd what they came to hear — an intense and intoxicating voice.

If you’ve never heard Concha Buika live, this is your opportunity to hear a voice of empowerment — a voice that is both luminous and haunting, timeless yet present. Her richly textured performances embody a complex whirlwind of emotions — hope, fear, longing, desperation, suffering, pain and even joy — communicated through a raspy, soft-on-the-inside, shrapnel-like sugar-coated sonic boom of vocal dynamite. When Buika sings, it’s as if one is listening to a woman communicating the cumulative knowledge of a thousand lives lived free from regret.

Born and raised in Mallorca, Spain, Concha Buika is the daughter of political refugees who fled from Equatorial Guinea. Her father, an elected official in the government at the time, moved the family to Spain after the dictator/president began a murderous rampage across the country. In Mallora, Buika grew up among Roma gypsies, and many of them had never seen a black family before. They welcomed Buika and her family into the cultural fabric of the region. Eventually, they sparked her interest in singing flamenco.

Although Buika’s work fuses together several traditions, including jazz, flamenco, rumba and neo-soul, her voice resists overly simplistic definitions. When Buika sings, we are immediately connected to the spirits and to the histories that inhabit her DNA. Her mouth is simply the conduit through which these spirits tell their stories to an audience that wants to experience them. And never let them go.

Information: Tickets are $25 – $75, through Ticketmaster or at the Fillmore box office, or by phone, 800-745-3000. Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater, 1700 Washington Ave, Miami Beach. Rhythm Foundation members, there is a VIP Red Star Lounge pre-show cocktail reception. To reach direct ticketing for members, call 305-672-5202