Elida Almeida: Kebrada

Elida Almeida describes her second album as an x-ray of Cape Verde, stories that look beneath the surface of hope and disillusion. At 24, she is a consummate singer-songwriter, blending her island homeland’s hallmark styles—funaná, morna, batuque and tabanka—with Latin energy and traces of R&B. Across 12 tracks, the album offers a current, delightfully applied, of life and art imitating one another. With the most mournful doses of reality, Almeida’s warm voice and gentle or upbeat rhythms … More Elida Almeida: Kebrada

Lura: Herança

Cape Verde has a diverse musical palette, but the international renown of the late Cesária Évora skewed the island nation’s reputation toward the melancholy morna style. Lura idolized Évora, with whom she performed, but she favors the more up-tempo funaná beat. Born in Lisbon to Cape Verdean parents, Lura (Maria de Lurdes Pina Assunção) didn’t speak Cape Verdean Creole until her teens but ultimately made the language the foundation of her career. Herança (Heritage) … More Lura: Herança