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.
Sombras Di Distino
Cesária Évora Lyrics
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Foi sempre nha ilusão
E ali ja'me está
Di sorriso falso
Margurado e triste
Ta vagá di mar em mar
Ta corrê di vento em vento
Em busca di um futuro
Nha vida é zig-zagueante
Sina di um fidjo caboverdeano
Num paz inconstante
Cma distino di um cigano
Um'tá vivê tormentado
Num mundo cheio di maldade
Nha sorte é dori magoado
Na um silêncio di sodade
In Cesária Évora's song "Sombras Di Distino," the singer sings about her aspirations to leave her homeland and make a life somewhere else. She talks about how she has always dreamed of leaving and finding a better future for herself. However, she finds herself somewhere new, feeling lost and unhappy. She describes how she feels like she's wandering aimlessly from place to place, without direction or purpose.
The lyrics suggest that the singer is struggling to find her place in the world, and that she feels isolated and alone. She talks about how her life is full of twists and turns, like the zig-zagging path of a Cape Verdean child, and how she feels like she's living in a world full of cruelty and sadness. Ultimately, the song is about the hardships of trying to find one's place in the world and the struggle to find happiness in difficult circumstances.
Line by Line Meaning
Parti pa terra longe
I left for a faraway land
Foi sempre nha ilusão
It was always my dream
E ali ja'me está
And here I am
Di sorriso falso
With a fake smile
Margurado e triste
Sad and sorrowful
Ta vagá di mar em mar
I wander from sea to sea
Ta corrê di vento em vento
I run from wind to wind
Em busca di um futuro
In search of a future
Entre sombras di distino
Amidst shadows of destiny
Nha vida é zig-zagueante
My life is full of twists and turns
Sina di um fidjo caboverdeano
As the fate of a Cape Verdean child
Num paz inconstante
In an unstable peace
Cma distino di um cigano
Like the destiny of a gypsy
Um'tá vivê tormentado
I live in torment
Num mundo cheio di maldade
In a world full of evil
Nha sorte é dori magoado
My fate is to suffer in pain
Na um silêncio di sodade
In a silence of longing
Contributed by Benjamin G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.