women-from-cape-verde

"In 2022, I was still on tour for my previous album Manga, and I was pregnant with my daughter. I started feeling the need to be in a more intimate set-up, because my tour was with a full band and I was singing and dancing in high heels. It was a really beautiful moment of my career, but there came the need to look inside and have something that would connect me with my audience in a much deeper way."

"I don’t know if I can give lessons, to be honest, but maybe advice would be, for those who want to do music, is that the world will change. People around you will change, so it is really important that you stop and listen to who you really are. And no matter what the genre or the things that you wanna try in your music or creative field, just make sure that your essence is protected, because this is what will ensure that in two decades, or five decades, or when you’ve gone, people will listen to your music. Maybe not everybody will like your music, but those who like it, will feel that that was you. We live in a world where it’s very difficult for people to hear their inner voice and actually remember who they are. I think musicians have a responsibility to talk to people’s hearts and people’s own consciousness; to unify people and to inspire them — to build a better world."

"I remember playing music in my room when I was three years old. When I was four I asked for my guitar. I remember as a child going to the countryside with my family and having all the batucaderas around us, playing batuko and funana. It's part of me. [But] I had my parallel world: I would go and look for CDs and vinyls from Brazilian artists, 'cause I was more attracted to that openness."

"Cape Verde is like ten small rocks lost in the middle of the ocean. Everything could go wrong here, but my people . . . We made this country out of nothing. I always say our only resource is the human resource. I'm very proud to be part of a nation that is mostly known for its music. In that sense, what I do with my music is very important because it impacts the way people see this country."

"From day one, I wanted my crowd to accept me the way I was. If I did what they asked me, I wouldn't be doing this music. When I was 15 and 16, [older musicians] said 'Look, you have a great voice – just stop messing around and improvising. Just do it properly, the way we do it, the traditional way.' You have the right to try things, and you have to be humble enough to understand that each album is a portrait of a moment. This is all I can give, today. Tomorrow I will have more to give, but it will be different."

"When I walk around with my friends, it’s a very, very interesting community"

"We speak Portuguese slang, Angolan slang, some words in Cape Verdean Crioulo, and of course some English. In Crioulo there are already English and French words. This is because slaves from all over the world had to communicate and didn’t speak the same languages. We are a metisse culture."

"Our generation feels very lost because there is no culture specifically for us; that talks about our reality."

"There is a big, big generation of Cape Verdeans and other Africans here in Lisbon, in Paris, in Boston, all over; with a kind of messed-up identity."

"I was in Zimbabwe a few years ago, and I saw some really drunk people dancing,We were watching them, and they were always almost falling, and then they would catch themselves. Just like those people dancing, I also want to dance with that kind of freedom and balance."

"I'm a very simple guitar player...I would write my songs as lullabies. I would write little poems for myself to lift me up."

"It's a whole inner process of dealing with my issues, and I think the music is medicine and a cathartic process for me,So that's why I do it — for me most of all."