Luz Elena Mendoza — Celeb Crush

Luz is the smokeshow lead singer of Portland-based band Y La Bamba. She's a wild woman with a voice that will haunt you for days.

Y La Bamba has been around since 2003, creating music heavily influenced by Mexican folk songs and mariachi singers. Since they started, they've enjoyed success within a limited indie audience, but never received much mainstream attention. Until now, that is. They just wrapped up an East Coast tour with the Grammy-nominated band The Lumineers, and we're thinking that might be just what they need to get a spotlight of their own.

Luz's voice is beautiful and unique in it's old-timey sadness and power.  In their recent EP, 'Oh February,' Luz shows just how talented she is by managing to sound controlled and like a woman on fire, all at once. We're really hoping this band blows up, we'd love to see more of Luz. Uh, we mean hear. Okay, both. Check out this video and more pics below, you'll see what we mean: