Cesária Evora

About the artist

Cape Verde native Cesária Évora was known as the country's foremost practitioner of the morna, which combines West African percussion with Portuguese fados, Brazilian modhinas, and British sea shanties. In the late '60s, two of her radio tapes were released as albums. However, Évora gave up singing until 1985, when she recorded two songs for an anthology. This led to four albums from 1988 to 1992. In 1995, she mounted her first large-scale American tour. Sao Vicente (2001) featured collaborations with Bonnie Raitt, Orquesta Aragón, and Brazilian superstar Caetano Veloso. She later won a 2004 Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music recording for Voz d'Amor. ~ Steve Huey