2023-11-17 20:00:13
Every Friday, The World Africa presents three new musical releases from or inspired by the continent. This week, we head to Cape Verde through artists strongly influenced by the sounds of this Portuguese-speaking archipelago off the coast of West Africa.
« Joia », by Kavita Shah
To hear him sing Joia (“jewelry”, in Portuguese), you would not suspect that Kavita Shah is a New Yorker of Indian origin. This song immediately transports us to Cape Verde and more precisely to the island of Sao Vicente, where the singer, composer and researcher carried out ethnographic studies on local traditions for seven years.
The result is an album of twelve mornas and coladeiras, Cape Verdean Blues, published mid-September and which intends to pay tribute to the emblematic voice of the archipelago, Cesaria Evora (1941-2011). “I hope it brings people the same feeling of comfort that I had hearing Cesaria for the first time,” says Kavita Shah.
“Cetam,” by Lura (feat. Angelique Kidjo)
Born in 1975 in Lisbon to Cape Verdean parents, Maria de Lurdes Assunçao Pina alias “Lura” published her seventh album at the end of September, entitled Multicolor in reference to the strong mix that characterizes the inhabitants and culture of the archipelago. It contains ten songs with Afropop or traditional rhythms, tinged with joy as well as “saudade”, this feeling mixing melancholy, nostalgia and hope.
And in particular a duet title with the Beninese diva Angélique Kidjo. “I am lucky to be her friend and we had this dream of one day singing together,” confided to Radio France internationale (RFI) the one that we could already hear, a few years ago, alongside Cesaria Evora on the song Fashion Bo.
« Ka Ta Pode », d’Andreia & Queen Omega
We already told you about Andreia when her first opus was released, Nha World, in 2022. The young singer born in France, where she grew up in Levallois-Perret (Hauts-de-Seine) with her Cape Verdean mother, has since released a few singles, including Ka Ta Pode, published at the end of September. On this deep and powerful afropop track, we find her in the company of reggae and dancehall artist Queen Omega, originally from Trinidad and Tobago.
In the clip, the two singers, one dressed in black, the other in white, alternate between alarmism and optimism, nuance and energy, Portuguese and English, in order to remind us that “the future rests on our shoulders, shaped by the decisions we make today.”
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Find all the editorial’s musical favorites in the playlist YouTube of World Africa.
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