Born on the 27th August 1941 in the port town of Mindelo, Cape Verde, on the island of São Vicente. Long known as the queen of the morna, a soulful genre (related to the Portuguese fado) sung in Creole-Portuguese, she mixed her sentimental folk tunes filled with longing and sadness with the acoustic sounds of guitar, cavaquinho, violin, accordion, and clarinet. Évora's Cape Verdean blues often spoke of the country's history of isolation and slave trade, as well as emigration; almost two-thirds of the million Cape Verdeans alive live abroad.
Évora's voice, a finely-tuned, melancholy instrument with a touch of hoarseness, highlighted her emotional phrasing by accenting a word or phrase. Even audiences who do not understand her language could be held spell-bound by the emotions evident in her performances.
In 2004 she won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary World Music Album.
A heavy smoker for decades, Évora was diagnosed with heart problems in 2005. She suffered strokes in 2008 and in September 2011, when she announced she was retiring. She died at the age of seventy in São Vicente, Cape Verde on the 17th December 2011 from respiratory failure and hypertension. A Spanish newspaper reported that forty-eight hours before her death she was still receiving people in her home in Mindelo, popular for always having its doors open.
Amdjer De Nos Terra
Cesária Évora Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
(Nôs or nôs pitrol nôs riqueza)
(Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra)
(Nôs sodade nôs cretcheu)
(Luz de nôs vida)
Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra
Firme moda rotcha na meio de mar
Qu'fidje na costa ta tchora sodade
Ma sempre c'mon na sê enxada
Cidim c'sol cascode ô meia-note
Ta crrê campe ta luta ta sofrê
Pa cria fidje c'pai ô sem pai
Ta guenta qu'ês gente e tude qu'ês bedje
Qu'ta intchi caspa gatcha de fome
Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra
Nôs or nôs pitrol nôs riqueza
Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra
Nôs sodade nôs cretcheu
Luz de nôs vida
Retratode e pintode na rotcha
Tchorode e cantodpa mar
Quémode de sol sotode pa vente
Ma sempre ta espia pa lua
Retratode e pintode na rotcha
Tchorode e cantodpa mar
Quémode de sol sotode pa vente
Ma sempre ta espia pa lua
Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra
Nô levanta'l pa tude mundo oia
Nô pô'l na peite nô sinti'l nô ama'l
Nô canta'l na nôs morna
Na nôs batuque e coladeira
Pa universo inter f'ca ta sabê
Qu"ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra
Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra
Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra
Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra
(Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra)
(Nôs or nôs pitrol nôs riqueza)
(Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra)
(Nôs sodade nôs cretcheu)
(Luz de nôs vida)
Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra
Nô levanta'l pa tude mundo oia
Nô pô'l na peite nô sinti'l nô ama'l
Nô canta'l na nôs morna
Na nôs batuque e coladeira
Pa universo inter f'ca ta sabê
Qu"ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra
Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra
Qu"ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra
Qu"ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra
(Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra)
(Nôs or nôs pitrol nôs riqueza)
(Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra)
(Nôs sodade nôs cretcheu)
(Luz de nôs vida)
(Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra)
(Nôs or nôs pitrol nôs riqueza)
(Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra)
(Nôs sodade nôs cretcheu)
(Luz de nôs vida)
The song "Amdjer De Nos Terra" by Cesária Évora honors the strong and resilient women of Cape Verde, the singer's home country. In the Creole language of Cape Verde, the lyrics describe a woman as firm as a rock in the middle of the sea, crying out in longing for her children on the coast. Despite the hardships of working the land with the sun beating down, these women fight and suffer to raise their children alone. They endure hunger and poverty while remaining proud and strong, looking to the moon for a glimmer of hope. The chorus repeats that these women are the essence of the country, its treasure, its longing and its soul.
The verses paint a picture of these women as being stoic but also in tune with the beauty of the world around them. They are captured in portraits painted on rocks, singing and crying out to the sea, feeling the sun on their faces and looking up at the stars. The chorus is repeated twice more to emphasize the importance of these women to the fabric of Cape Verdean culture and identity.
Line by Line Meaning
Ess é qu'é amdjer de nôs terra
She is the woman of our land, strong like a rock in the middle of the sea, and the daughter of the coast who cries with longing.
Firme moda rotcha na meio de mar
She is resilient like a rock amidst the sea.
Qu'fidje na costa ta tchora sodade
She is the daughter of the coast who weeps with longing.
Ma sempre c'mon na sê enxada
But she always works with her hoe.
Cidim c'sol cascode ô meia-note
From sunrise to midnight, she tills the land.
Ta crrê campe ta luta ta sofrê
She believes in her field, fights for it, and suffers for it.
Pa cria fidje c'pai ô sem pai
To raise her children with or without a father.
Ta guenta qu'ês gente e tude qu'ês bedje
She endures everything that life throws at her.
Qu'ta intchi caspa gatcha de fome
Even when she is starving, she perseveres.
Nôs or nôs pitrol nôs riqueza
Our gold is our oil, our wealth.
Nôs sodade nôs cretcheu
Our longing is for our homeland.
Luz de nôs vida
The light of our lives.
Retratode e pintode na rotcha
Etched and painted on the rock.
Tchorode e cantodpa mar
Crying and singing to the sea.
Quémode de sol sotode pa vente
Burned by the sun, hidden from the wind.
Ma sempre ta espia pa lua
But always gazing at the moon.
Nô levanta'l pa tude mundo oia
We lift it up for the whole world to hear.
Nô pô'l na peite nô sinti'l nô ama'l
We place it in our hearts, feeling and loving it.
Nô canta'l na nôs morna
We sing it in our morna.
Na nôs batuque e coladeira
In our batuque and coladeira.
Pa universo inter f'ca ta sabê
So that the whole universe will know.
Contributed by Leo W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Solange Tavares
Escutar Cesária Évora é Um Alento Pra o Coração.
cAlicia Del Valle
GRAN CANTANTE! HERMOSA VOZ.
Marinela Girão
A voz d'Amor <3
Dalila Badja
Magnifique 😍
Lino Públio Augusto Pinto Monteiro
A ouvir esta linda homenagem à mulher cabo verdiana no dia que lhe é dedicado. Melhor, ainda em Mindelo a cidade que viu nascer a rainha da morna ou a diva dos pés descalços, se assim a quiserem também chamar.
Mila Mezina
Женщина с нашей Земли
yry ysys
la reina!
Giuseppe G Dolce
Meravigliosa canzone
Scipion Leromain
Une très grande artiste! Maintenant disparue. RIP
mario emilio
Lindo lindo lindo.