NANCY VIEIRA

(CV)

She started very early singing morna, the musical style declared as World Heritage by UNESCO in 2019, which perhaps best defines Cape Verdean identity. “I've been singing the classics since I was a child and that is why, on the eve of a concert, I can remember an old theme and then challenge my musicians to play it with me”, she says, as if justifying the constant surprises, she usually offers the public at their shows. Her music speaks of travel and the sea, nostalgia and distance, a theme that is always present in the collective imagination of Cape Verde, but which in her voice spreads even further across the ocean and the world, through musical influences from the most diverse latitudes. Born in Guinea-Bissau and living in Portugal since she was a teenager, the Cape Verdean singer began to stand out in 1999, when she participated on the compilation Música de Intervenção Cabo-Verdiana: a História da Luta de Independência de Cabo Verde Contada em Música(Cape Verdean Intervention Music: the History of Cape Verde's Independence Struggle Told in Music), singing with the legendary Ildo Lobo. Five years earlier, she had already edited her first record, entitled Nôs Raçawhich were followed by Segred (2004), Lus (2007), Pássaro Cego (2009) – in partnership with the Portuguese pianist and composer Manuel Paulo –, Nô Amá (2012) and Manhã Florida (2018). She now takes the stage of the Festival MED with some novelties, as she is currently making a new album, with an edition expected later this year.