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.
Ligereza
Cesária Évora Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Se no ta podê
Inventa um nova folia
Pa tira-no dess loucura
Sem gosto e sem sabura
Talvês um dia
No ta fazê
Um fantasia
Na seriedade no ta leva
Mod vida ca é banal
Na ligereza no ta vivê
Sem magoa sem ofendê ninguêm
Ja tem tonte mazela
Pa no suporta
Nos vivê
Nos revisa
Um brisa no procura
No issa vela
De nos amor
Amor ta ba
Amor ta bêm
No ta balança
Na sê vai-vem
The lyrics of Cesaria Evora's "Ligereza" speak about a desire to escape from the troubles and madness of the world and find a sense of joy and lightness. The song starts with the idea that perhaps one day, they will invent a new form of celebration or festivity that will help them forget their worries and pains. The following lines suggest that perhaps they can even turn the world into a fantasy, where life is not mundane, but filled with wonder.
The chorus of the song talks about the two ways of living - one where life is taken seriously, and the other where life is lived with lightness. The seriousness of life is described as banal, while the lightness of being is presented as a way of life without offending or hurting anyone. The next verse implies that living with the weight of the world on one's shoulders can be too much to bear, and revisiting their relationship with love is like a breath of fresh air. The final lines indicate that love comes and goes, but they keep balancing themselves.
Line by Line Meaning
Quem sabe um dia
Perhaps someday
Se no ta podê
If we are unable to
Inventa um nova folia
Create a new joy
Pa tira-no dess loucura
To relieve us of this madness
Sem gosto e sem sabura
Without taste or flavor
Talvês um dia
Maybe someday
No ta fazê
We'll do it
Dess mundo
In this world
Um fantasia
A fantasy
Na seriedade no ta leva
Seriousness doesn't take us far
Mod vida ca é banal
Life is not trivial
Na ligereza no ta vivê
In lightness we live
Sem magoa sem ofendê ninguêm
Without hurting anyone
Ja tem tonte mazela
There are already too many wounds
Pa no suporta
That we can't bear
Nos vivê
We live
Nos revisa
We review ourselves
Um brisa no procura
A breeze we search for
No issa vela
We raise the sails
De nos amor
Of our love
Amor ta ba
Love is low
Amor ta bêm
Love is good
No ta balança
We sway
Na sê vai-vem
In its coming and going
Contributed by Levi K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@reginakato7374
Hermossisima❤
@reginakato7374
Belle Cesaria❤
@LuisDelRiof
Guapisiiiiima!
@catharsis1004
Il n'existe qu'une et unique Cesaria
@abedrawas5692
Superb