Cesária Évora

Born in Mindelo, on the island of São Vicente in Cape Verde, Cesária Évora carried morna and coladeira far beyond the archipelago—two central forms of Cape Verdean music, sung mainly in Cape Verdean Creole. Her deep, supple, and immediately identifiable voice established itself in a register marked by melancholy, saudade, tales of exile, love, and popular life. After she began singing in the bars of Mindelo in the late 1950s, Cesária Évora pursued a first local activity, then withdrew for several years before returning in the mid-1980s. This revival took her to Portugal and then Paris, where her meeting with producer José da Silva accompanied the recording of La Diva aux Pieds Nus in 1988. Her international recognition grew with Miss Perfumado in 1992, then with Cesária in 1995, which permanently established Cesária Évora on European, American, and African stages. Over the albums, among them Cabo Verde in 1997, Café Atlantico in 1999, Voz d’Amor in 2003, Rogamar in 2006, and Nha Sentimento in 2009, her repertoire remains tied to Cape Verdean traditions while incorporating acoustic arrangements open to Atlantic circulations, between Lusophone song, African influences, and discreet orchestral textures. Often associated with her image as a barefoot singer, Cesária Évora remains above all linked to a sober and direct way of embodying the Cape Verde repertoire.