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.
Luiza
Cesária Évora Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Bem odjâ um note de luar
Cordâ cretcheu bô bem 'scutâ
Es serenata poema d'amor
Luiza cordâ bô bem sem medo
Bem revelâ-me ês bô segredo
Nôs alma em flôr aberto assim
Mi perto di bô, bô djunto de mim
Mim pâ'me vivê ê d'bô carinho
E d'bô sorriso, ma bô ternura
Se ês faltâ-me mim d'jâ-me morrê
The lyrics of Cesária Évora's song "Luiza" speak of a love that is pure and passionate. The song begins with the singer waking up and noticing the moon shining bright in the night sky. As they listen to a serenade that is a poem of love, the singer is filled with a sense of longing to connect with the object of their affection. They ask Luiza to reveal her secrets and open up to them, as they feel their souls blooming with the fragrance of love, and the singer wishes to be close to Luiza, to feel her warmth and affection.
The lyrics speak of a love that is born out of madness, but it is a beautiful, tender kind of madness. The singer declares that they want to live with Luiza's love and affection, and her smile and tenderness have become an inseparable part of their being. The song ends with the singer stating that if Luiza were to leave them, they would feel like they were dying. The overall message of the song speaks of the intoxicating power of love and how it can change one's life completely.
Line by Line Meaning
Cretcheu d'nha vida dispertâ
Beloved of my life, wake up
Bem odjâ um note de luar
See this note of moonlight
Cordâ cretcheu bô bem 'scutâ
Wake up my beloved and listen well
Es serenata poema d'amor
This serenade is a love poem
Luiza cordâ bô bem sem medo
Luiza, wake up without fear
Bem revelâ-me ês bô segredo
Reveal to me your secrets
Nôs alma em flôr aberto assim
Our souls in bloom, open like this
Mi perto di bô, bô djunto de mim
Me close to you, you close to me
Es nôs amor nascê dum loucura
Our love was born from madness
Mim pâ'me vivê ê d'bô carinho
For me to live is to receive your affection
E d'bô sorriso, ma bô ternura
And your smile, and your tenderness
Se ês faltâ-me mim d'jâ-me morrê
If you were to leave me, I would die
Contributed by Liliana B. Suggest a correction in the comments below.