"I’m not impressed by all these big Western cities," she says. "You have more resources than Cape Verde, that's all. If I could change one thing in my life it would be that my success came earlier."

Biography

Cesaria Evora is one of the superstars of African music and one of the few world music artists to have crossed over and won a large mainstream following. In France she sells CDs by the hundreds of thousands and can fill venues normally reserved for top rock/pop acts. Not bad for a woman nicknamed 'the barefoot diva' who had never left Cape Verde until she was in her forties. Evora's fame is almost unique in these media manipulated days – it is not down to her being a sultry young singer or being fed songs by top producers or hyped by a massive marketing campaign. Instead, it literally rests on the weary beauty of her voice and the eloquent morna (Cape Verdean ballads) she sings. Cape Verde, an isolated archipelago of islands, was one of Portugal's poorest colonies and its people are descended from the African slaves the Portuguese originally imported to work the barren lands. Drought, malnutrition, malaria and famine have blighted Cape Verde and Evora knows all about hard times – born in 1941, her father died when she was seven and by ten she was an orphan. While a teenager she made a reputation singing in bars. Spots on national radio followed. But Cape Verde's isolation and poverty determined that the wider world would not get to hear Evora until she was sent to sing in Portugal in 1985 as a representative of Cape Verde. Singers as individual as Evora are rare finds and Paris-based record company boss Jose da Silva signed Cesaria and in 1992 issued the Miss Perfumado (Melodie) album which has gone on to become one of the defining world music albums. Fame in France, Portugal, Holland, Brazil, Spain, Italy, America, Poland (Poland!) has followed. Cesaria remains un-phased by her success, still living in Cape Verde and singing barefoot. "I’m not impressed by all these big Western cities," she says. "You have more resources than Cape Verde, that's all. If I could change one thing in my life it would be that my success came earlier." Garth Cartwright