Cesária Évora, born in Cape Verde, earned recognition as the islands’ leading exponent of morna, a style rooted there that fuses West African percussion with Portuguese fados, Brazilian modhinas, and British sea shanties. At sixteen she took up the genre after encountering an attractive young guitarist, and her voice quickly carried her to venues across the archipelago. In the late 1960s two of her radio sessions appeared as albums, one in the Netherlands and the other in Portugal.
She remained in Cape Verde and stopped performing in the mid-1970s when earnings proved insufficient. At forty-five, in 1985, she resumed her career and journeyed to Portugal to cut two tracks for a collection spotlighting female Cape Verdean vocalists. Those sessions opened the way to further work in Paris that produced four albums between 1988 and 1992. Her reputation spread, prompting tours through Europe, Africa, Brazil, and Canada, along with appearances in the United States for local Cape Verdean communities. In autumn 1995 she undertook her first major American tour, followed by the releases Cabo Verde in 1997 and both Mar Azul and Cafe Atlantico in 1999.
Entering the new century she sustained her international schedule without pause. The 2001 album Sao Vicente included guest contributions from Bonnie Raitt, Orquesta Aragón, and Brazilian star Caetano Veloso. Already familiar to European television viewers, she gained wider North American notice through an appearance on The David Letterman Show, the DVD Live in Paris, the reissue of her 1974 album Distino di Belita, and the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album for Voz d’Amor. That same year French culture minister Jean-Jacques Aillagon named her an Officer des Arts et des Lettres.
Following another lengthy tour she issued Rogamar in 2006, much of it recorded in her native Mindelo. Three years later Nha Sentimento appeared, again centered in Mindelo and featuring additional compositions by Teofilo Chantre. Cardiac problems necessitated surgery in 2010; a year afterward she withdrew from the stage because of declining health. Three months after that decision, on 17 December 2011, she died in a Mindelo hospital.
