Mayra Andrade

Show Description

“Mayra Andrade … is a younger Cape Verdean singer with an intimate, open and unaffected voice. She is well known on the islands and is now making her way in Europe.   Ms. Andrade has lived not only on the Cape Verdean island of Santiago, where she soaked up Cape Verdean and Brazilian songs, but also in Senegal, Angola and Germany before moving to Paris in 2002. So her Cape Verdean music is an international mix, ranging from morna to Brazilian-influenced songs (like “Dimokransa,” or “Democracy,” which has lyrics that ponder modernity and the loss of tradition) to works rooted in some of Cape Verde’s more upbeat African rhythms and songs with touches of funk and the Caribbean. She’s a representative of Cape Verde and of a wider, Portuguese-speaking diaspora. And she’s also her own woman, full of gracefully expressed convictions and connections.” –The New York Times

Recent winner of the BBC Radio 3 awards in world music for Newcomer of the year, Mayra Andrade is quickly becoming a name in World Music in the United States as well.