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.
Resposta Menininhas De Monte Sossego
Cesária Évora Lyrics
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Pá tude manera ês tem perdão
Ca bocês fala mal dêss
Pamod ês ta tude na sês razon
Ês ta bêm té morada
Limpinhas d'certeza
Se es fazê fantasia
Criticá é falso quês pôs
Talvez alguém que crê-s mal
Ó Frank bô ê tão mau
Deus ta na céu quê pal oiá
The lyrics of Cesaria Evora's song “Resposta Menininhas De Monte Sossego” translate to "The little girls of Monte Sossego forgive everyone in all ways. You all speak about them badly because they are all in their own way. Their houses are very clean, and they live in certainty. If they make fantasies, that’s the trend. It’s false to criticize because anyone who thinks badly is maybe worse off than Frank, whom you all say is bad. God is in the sky, watching everything."
This song addresses the criticism and gossip towards the little girls of Monte Sossego, which is a neighborhood in Mindelo, a city in Cape Verde. The song defends the little girls and their way of living, saying that they forgive everyone and live in certainty. Their homes are clean, and if they like to create fantasies, that’s fine because it's the trend. This song talks about not criticizing a person or a group without knowing them or understanding their way of life. It also mentions the religious belief of God watching everything, meaning any harm done or said to others will eventually have repercussions.
Line by Line Meaning
Quês mninina de Monte Sossego
These girls from Monte Sossego
Pá tude manera ês tem perdão
Forgiveness is always available in every way
Ca bocês fala mal dêss
Because you speak ill of them
Pamod ês ta tude na sês razon
As they are everything in their own right
Ês ta bêm té morada
They live in a good place
Limpinhas d'certeza
Certainly clean
Se es fazê fantasia
If they make a fantasy
Tud êss ta na moda
Everything is fashionable
Criticá é falso quês pôs
Criticism is fake, you know
Talvez alguém que crê-s mal
Maybe someone who misunderstands
Ó Frank bô ê tão mau
Oh Frank, you're so bad
Deus ta na céu quê pal oiá
God is watching from heaven
Contributed by Charlotte V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.