PAULO FLORES

(AO)

With a career spanning more than three decades, Paulo Flores returned to the albums this year with ‘Canções que fez pra quem me ama’, a work that celebrates the trajectory already taken and pays homage to the musical roots of Angola, always present in his work. A central figure in Angolan music, Paulo Flores continues to build bridges between tradition and contemporaneity, working with traditional semba with the elegance of someone who knows his cultural DNA in depth. In this new album, there is also an intention to preserve a certain ballroom semba , a heritage that has been becoming rarer since the disappearance of names like Carlos Burity, to whom Flores pays an implicit tribute here, while at the same time rekindling the danceable and lyrical pulse of this style.

In this new album, Flores remains faithful to the Angolan tradition, but without ceasing to dialogue with other influences and rhythms, in a constant search for the fusion between body and soul, melody and memory. The songs are, as is customary in the universe of this singer and composer, full of poetic narratives, made of longing, struggle, love and belonging — a mirror of Angola and its many worlds. The new repertoire was presented live on April 24th and 25th at B.Leza, in Lisbon, as part of the Inquietaçãocycle. The sold-out shows confirmed the place that Paulo Flores occupies in the hearts of several generations, making it clear that the stage is, as always, the place where the artist transforms music into an intimate and collective sharing, calling for dancing and listening, communion and resistance.