Celia Chavez enjoys a multifaceted career as performing songwriter, touring singer, session vocalist, educator and coach. With her wistful lyricism tempered by a unique clarity of vocal delivery, Celia aims to create an ongoing love letter to the world as comfort in times of uncertainty, compassion in times of division, and catharsis for a world under pressure. Her songs express different ways to hang on to love and faith despite seemingly hopeless odds. Her music displays a gracefully tenacious, yet playful sens — so beautifully reflected in the story arc of Celia's life.
Spreading her wings to step outside the gilded cage of her life as a globetrotting arena-level backup singer, Celia Chavez has taken a brand new moniker, Babilonia, to release her new EP, If I Ever Think To Double Back. Braiding together strands of music she's lived and loved — from her parents’ jazz/soul records in her hometown of Seattle, to New York City’s vibrant Lower East Side and Brooklyn, to the songcraft capital of LA's Laurel Canyon — Chavez takes her place at the front of her own formidable studio band as a compelling singer-songwriter.
Babilonia — guided by producer Jeremy Little — found a sonic, lyrical language to explore tenacious buoyancy in the face of complex grief. To reclaim and harmonize the parts of herself she lent to other people’s music for many years, Babilonia resists melancholy and embraces bittersweetness through a vibrant current of energy that becomes, song by song, an arrival to a place of wholeness and peace.
She grew up in Seattle, the first-generation middle daughter of Filipino immigrant parents. After their tumultuous marriage split, Celia’s favorite childhood escape was into a world of album sleeves and liner notes, her headphones perpetually plugged into turntables, Walkmans and radios. Despite studying music with the intent of becoming a professional performer, she spent her early adulthood holding down a cubicle job with a long commute while her musical ambitions faded into the background. After a decade of artistic starvation, she began singing again and found solace through songwriting, deciding to move to New York City to restart her life as a musician.
Her acoustic duo Petty Chavez (formed with partner, Simon Petty) got a boost when tastemaker DJ Nic Harcourt featured their singles on KCSN 88.5 FM radio in Los Angeles. Petty Chavez proudly represented the FAR-West region at Folk Alliance International’s 2021 virtual music conference. Celia sings at Randy Rainbow’s New Orleans wedding on the FX television show “Better Things”; toured for seven years as Enrique Iglesias’ romantic duet partner; and has sung with artists as diverse as Pink, Julia Fordham, Brandon Flowers, Melody Gardot, Burning Spear and Bad Bad Not Good.
Now based in Los Angeles, California, Celia shares her extensive experience as a professional musician and performer as a teacher, harmony coach and performance coach through her private music studio. In a new extension of her creativity, she is now a published essayist, poet and music editor of Womancake Magazine. In 2024, her poetry was long-listed in the international Fish Poetry Competition, which was judged by former United States poet laureate, Billy Collins.