Artist: Cesaria Evora
Album: Nha sentimento
Label: Lusafrica
Genre: World : African
UPC: 3567255625527
Territory: World
Release Date:3.13.11
Grammy winning singer Cesária Évora has passed away at the age of 70. Évora, who brought the music of the tiny Cape Verde islands off Senegal to a worldwide audience, died on Saturday in Mindelo, on São Vicente, her native island in Cape Verde. Ms. Évora retired earlier this year after suffering a heart attack in 2010, preceded by a 2008 stroke. She told the French newspaper Le Monde: “I have no strength, no energy. I’m sorry, but now I must rest.”
Ms. Évora’s music predominantly in the of morna, a traditional music sung in taverns on the Cape Verde islands characterized by slow, pensive ballads with an underlying lilt, suffused with sodade, a Cape Verdean creole term for a nostalgic longing that pervades music across Portugal (where the word is saudade) and its former empire. She also sang in her country’s more upbeat styles, coladeira and funaná, but her serenely sorrowful mornas were her legacy. Ms. Évora’s husky, dignified, unhurried contralto brought warmth and gravity to songs about love, sorrow and history, including slavery written by Cape Verde’s leading poets. Catch the rest after the jump!











