After attending the Atlantic Music Expo 2023 in Cape Verde, where she premiered her first album Lua Adversa, Cristina Clara presented her album on several stages across the country. In Lisbon he made his debut at Santa Casa Alfama and is now preparing to participate in the Festival da Canção with the theme Primavera.
The singer started her journey with Fado and traditional Portuguese music, but her work is very much influenced by the traditional music of Cape Verde. A relationship that began ten years ago through Cape Verdean artists he met in Lisbon, such as John Luz, Maria Alice, Nancy Vieira or Rolando Semedo. Thanks to this connection, their songs began to incorporate new rhythms.
“Firstly, Morna, because of the great closeness she has with fado. This was the first study. Then the coladeira appeared, and meetings with many other composers, even now, disappeared. Then, most recently, a visit to the island of Santiago. Naturally, these influences are present very organically in the music I create,” says the singer.
Cristina Clara will take part in this year’s Song Festival with the theme “Spring”.
“The music comes from this moment of collaborative exploration with John Loos, between fado and morna. This theme is morna, in the composer’s style, it is not a traditional style. The poem was written quite recently. It reflects not only a state of mind, but also the general context in which we live. Take a little look at this need to create potential, out of the seeming darkness, the seeming barrenness of the context, and believe that this metamorphosis exists, that it is possible to change reality, not always in the spring. What I like most about this song is the sort of pulse that continues throughout the song. It grows as this hope for transformation also grows, and so that we can claim this inner search not only for others, but also for ourselves. And it’s finally showing up. The music completes this apotheosis and reflects precisely those influences of traditional Portuguese music that will be more noticeable in live performance, and the music of Cape Verde, naturally,” says Cristina Clara of her “poetic manifesto”, convinced that nature feeds on its own ashes to to be reborn, as she recites in a message in Creole from San Vicente, in an excerpt from a song. Primavera.
Author: Thiago Sousa Diaz
Source: CM Jornal
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