Cesária Évora was in her late forties when she recorded her first album in Europe, and past fifty when the world finally paid attention.
For decades, the Cape Verdean singer had performed in bars and on ships in the harbour town of Mindelo, singing morna, the slow, melancholic song style of the islands. She had nearly given up on music. Then, in the 1990s, a Paris-based producer helped take her voice to international audiences, and she became one of the most celebrated singers in the world.
Morna and sodade
Morna is Cape Verde’s national song form: slow, often sad, sung in Cape Verdean Creole, accompanied by guitar, cavaquinho, violin and piano. Its central emotion is sodade, a deep longing and nostalgia for home, lost love or absent people.
For Cape Verdeans, sodade has special meaning. The islands have a long history of emigration, drought and hardship, and many families have members living abroad. Évora’s song “Sodade”, about those who left the islands for São Tomé, became an anthem of that experience.
The barefoot diva
Évora always performed barefoot, and became known as “the barefoot diva”. She said it was a gesture of solidarity with the poor women and children of her country. Her stage presence was quiet and dignified: she sang with little movement, sometimes taking a break during concerts to sit and smoke, and let the music carry the emotion.
International fame
Her 1992 album Miss Perfumado, which included “Sodade”, became a hit in France and brought her to a wider public. She toured the world, performing in major concert halls and at festivals. Her voice, deep and warm, won fans who did not understand a word of Creole.
She won the Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album in 2004 for Voz d’Amor. She was also made a member of France’s Légion d’honneur.
Returning home
Despite her fame, Évora remained closely tied to Mindelo, where she lived much of her life. Health problems forced her to stop performing in 2011, and she died in Mindelo on 17 December 2011, aged 70. Cape Verde declared national mourning, and the airport on São Vicente island was later named after her.
The legacy
Évora put Cape Verde, a small island nation off the coast of West Africa, on the world music map. Younger Cape Verdean singers have built on the path she opened, and morna was later recognised by UNESCO as part of the world’s intangible cultural heritage.
She spent most of her life singing for small crowds in Mindelo. She spent her last two decades singing sodade to the world, still barefoot.
