MUSICIANS from Chile

Top 3

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Chilean Musicians of all time. This list of famous Chilean Musicians is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Claudio Arrau (1903 - 1991)

With an HPI of 62.01, Claudio Arrau is the most famous Chilean Musician.  His biography has been translated into 34 different languages on wikipedia.

Claudio Arrau León (Spanish: [ˈklawðjo aˈraw]; February 6, 1903 – June 9, 1991) was a Chilean and American pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning the baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century.

2. Violeta Parra (1917 - 1967)

With an HPI of 61.58, Violeta Parra is the 2nd most famous Chilean Musician.  Her biography has been translated into 42 different languages.

Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (Spanish pronunciation: [bjoˈleta ˈpara]; 4 October 1917 – 5 February 1967) was a Chilean composer, singer-songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist. She pioneered the Nueva Canción Chilena (The Chilean New Song), a renewal and a reinvention of Chilean folk music that would extend its sphere of influence outside Chile. Her birthdate (4 October) was chosen "Chilean Musicians' Day". In 2011, Andrés Wood directed a biopic about her, titled Violeta Went to Heaven (Spanish: Violeta se fue a los cielos).

3. Tom Araya (b. 1961)

With an HPI of 54.48, Tom Araya is the 3rd most famous Chilean Musician.  His biography has been translated into 39 different languages.

Tomás Enrique Araya Díaz (Spanish pronunciation: [ton aˈɾaʝa]; born June 6, 1961) is a Chilean-American musician, best known as the vocalist and bassist of American thrash metal band Slayer. He was ranked 58th by Hit Parader on their list of the 100 Greatest Metal Vocalists of All Time. Araya, along with Kerry King, are the only members who stayed in the band since its inception. Araya was employed as a respiratory therapist in the early 1980s and used his earnings to finance Slayer's debut album Show No Mercy (1983). Much of Araya's lyrical content is about serial killers, a subject he finds interesting; his first credited lyrical contribution was the vampire-themed track "At Dawn They Sleep" from 1985's Hell Awaits.