Cesaria Evora, born in 1941 in the port town of Mindelo on the Cape Verdeisland of Sao Vicente is a notable folksinger. She is known as the 'barefoot diva' because of her propensity to appear on stage in her bare feet in support of the homeless and poor women and children of her country.
Long known as the queen of the morna, a soulful genre (descendant of the Portuguese fado) sung in Creole-Portuguese, she mixes her sentimental folk tunes filled with longing and sadness with the acoustic sounds of guitar, cavaquinho, violin, accordion, and clarinet. Evora's Cape Verdean blues often speak of the country's long and bitter history of isolation and slave trade, as well as emigration - almost two-thirds of the million Cape Verdeans alive live abroad.
Evora's voice, a finely-tuned, melancholy instrument with a touch of hoarseness, highlights her emotional phrasing by accenting a word or phrase. Even audiences who do not understand her language are held spell-bound by the emotions evident in her performances.
CesariaEvora's husky and crackling voice travels effortlessly from the island of Cape Verde to the chair where you're sitting.
Evora's ability to convey life's lesser lights with savage reality (dig the unforgiving "Quem bô ê (Who Are You?)" for a dose of grand female empowerment) is only matched by her matured singing skills.
Until 1992 Evora lived in the town where she was born, Mindelo, on the Cape Verde island of Sao Vincente (near the coast of Senegal).
Cesaria left the orphanage choir at the age of 13 but her musical apprenticeship was not to end there.
Cesaria was thus familiar with the haunting sound of the morna (a name inspired by the English verb to mourn) from an early age.
Cesaria was soon back in the studio, putting the finishing touches to a second album, "Distino Di Belita" which introduced listeners to a mix of haunting acoustic mornas and jazzed-up electric coladeras.
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