Rogamar is the title of the new album by Cesária Évora (Mindelo, São Vicente, Cape Verde, 1941). Infused with a message of strength, courage and bravery, the tenth album by “the barefoot diva” –she usually performs barefoot as a symbolic salute to the humble neighbourhood where she was born, which she evokes in her songs– invites us to placidly immerse ourselves in Portuguese Africa. To do so she once again relies on the talent of composers such as Manuel de Novas and Teófilo Chantre, renowned for their saudade rhythms – referred to by many as the Portuguese blues–, and for the morna, a genre of which Cesária is its leading voice, in which she invariably sings to love and distance. The record also includes collaborations with younger artists from the Mindelo region, such as Constantino Cardoso and Jon Luz, creators of native rhythms.

Fresh, melancholy and oceanic, Rogamar –from rogar, to pray, and mar, the sea, ever present – she includes a more festive register, celebrating with the batucada of the island of São Vicente, the rhythm of the drums on Saint John’s day or those accompanying a thoroughly pagan carnival.

Cesária Évora, winner of a Grammy Award in 2004 to the best World Music Album, awarded France’s Legion d’Honneur (2009), and with more than five million records sold worldwide since 1988, is an unresolved puzzle, which increases manyfold the mystery and charm of her songs.

In addition to singing the songs of Rogamar, she will also introduce other pieces from her latest offering, Radio Mindelo, a compilation of songs from her entire musical career.

www.cesaria-evora.com