Born in Selargius, a town on the outskirts of Cagliari, she attended the conservatory of the capital studying oboe and singing. Despite the potential of her mezzo-soprano voice, she preferred to dedicate her career to the folk genre, although over time enriched by research and experimentation.
Her album Ammentos dates back to 1979, which already has among its credits that Mauro Palmas who will be a fundamental presence for her career: with him she forms at the same time the band Suonofficina, in which she will experiment with an evolution of Sardinian music that in the future will bring her into the realm of so-called world music.
In 1984 she released the new album “Is Arrosas” and in those same years she was often a guest on the regional channel Videolina of the traditional Sardinian folk music program Sardegna Canta, of which one year she also had the honor of the opening theme song. But alongside these participations that increased his popularity, she continued his anxiety for cultured research with collaborations with artists such as the king of new Age Andreas Vollenweider. In this same period Suonofficina evolved into Sonos, an open group project with the aim of experimenting with ethnic music based on the traditional heritage of his island.
In the nineties her career continued with the publication of Incanti (1993) while she continued her live activity which led Elena to perform all over the world.
The albums Maremannu, released in 2001, and Amargura in 2005, confirm the state of grace achieved and a consolidated artistic maturity. This last album, which sees the collaboration of Lino Cannavacciuolo, ventures into sounds halfway between the ancestral vibrations of the heritage of Sardinia and the more codified and melodic one of Naples. In 2007 the Disco Rosaresolza, recorded with her friend Andrea Parodi, in Sanremo receives the Targa Tenco at the Tenco Prize for the best album in Dialect and the “Città di Loano” award for the best album of Popular Music 2007. In 2008 she publishes Live at jazz in Sardegna and in 2009 Cantendi a Deus.
In October 2016 she was a guest on Enzo Avitabile’s prestigious album “Lotto Infinito” where she duets in “Nisciuno Sape”. Although Elena Ledda is originally from southern Sardinia, she uses all the linguistic variants present on the island with extreme ease. The artist from Selargius has collaborated with Fabrizio De André, Lester Bowie, Don Cherry, Andreas Vollenweider, Savina Yannatou, Maria del Mar Bonet, Paolo Fresu, Noa and Andrea Parodi, Rita Marcotulli, Antonello Salis, Gavino Murgia, Riccardo Tesi.
