Cesaria Evora

Cesaria Evora is a legend. The personality (she isn’t called a diva for nothing!), her life…it all seemed like something from a novel, and yet, her music was all about authenticity. Cesaria – known as ‘Cize’ by her friends and as the ‘barefoot diva’ by the press – was born on the 27 April 1941 in Mindelo, Cape Verde.

From a young age, her voice and her beauty attracted attention. But it was not until she reached her 50s that she became well known. In 1988, José Da Silva - a young French woman of Cape Verdean origin – invited Cesaria to Paris to record an album. The critics loved her – ‘she belongs to that global aristocracy of female nightclub singers’ said Le Monde, comparing her to Billie Holiday and highlighting her immoderate love of cognac and tobacco and her challenging life. As well as the Cape Verdean blues which is morna, Cesaria also sings the uplifting coladeira style.

In 1993, her album Miss Perfumado is released and in Lisbon the police are called in to control the crowds of fans at the theatre where she is performing. In 1995, she receives the first of three Grammy nominations and embarks on her first US tour. In New York her public includes Madonna and David Byrne. Her talent taking its sweet revenge on destiny. The government, proud of its Cape Verdean ambassador, secures her a diplomatic passport. Her music generates an interest in Cape Verdean traditions among music fans worldwide, and sparks positive shifts for the artistic community there. Around the diva, a whole generation of musicians get their names on the map: Bana - the other figurehead of Cape Verde, Bau – the cavaquinho player, who takes on the role of musical director in Cesaria’s band, Tito Paris – a young singer-songwriter who composes for her, and Teofilo Chantre, who collaborates with Goran Bregovic and Cesaria on the soundtrack to Patrice Chéreau’s film Reine Margot. All these artists made their name in Cesaria’s glorious slipstream.

In 1999, for Café Atlantico, she travels to Cuba where she records with the legendary Orquestra Aragon, and calls in Jacques Morelenbaum, Caetano Veloso’s favourite arranger. On this album, she pays tribute to her hometown Mindelo, the port on the island of Sao Vicente. She offers a version of Maria Elena, made popular by Nat King Cole, marries Cape Verdean instruments with the Malian kora, and there’s even an electro dance remix of one of the tracks. By now her popularity is assured and she assumes the role. She has given up drinking spirits and rarely gives one-to-one press interviews, preferring press conferences. In 2001, she rejoins the Orquestra Aragon and Jacques Morelenbaum and sings a duet with Caetano Veloso called Sao Vicente di longe. She celebrates the launch of the new album with a concert at the Zenith club in Paris, following a night in Cape Verde where she is declared queen of the morna.

(Translation by Jody Gillett)