Illapu is a Latin American group known for their blend of Andean music and more modern sounds and rhythms. Like many Latin American groups and artists that started in the 60s and 70s, Illapu is well-known for protest music that leans towards the left.

Illapu was exiled due to their very liberal viewpoints during the right-wing dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, and returned to Chile in 1988. Their return was captured in the 1989 album `En Vivo: Parque La Bandera', which was a recording of their returning concert.

During their exile from Chile, they spent time in Europe in general and France in particular, where they gained a good amount of fame, as with other similar groups such as Inti Illimani and Los Calchakis.

Illapu comes from the Quechua word for "Lightning Bolt" (Quechua being the language of the Incan empire and still spoken by many Native American groups in South America).