Barefoot, arms raised and teeming with emotion, Ceuzany belts out the signature track from her latest album, a song dedicated to the fight against domestic violence, in a powerful voice that sends shivers through the Cape Verde bar.
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From the very first notes the deep yet soaring timbre of the song, part of a new generation of Cape Verdean music, sparks applause.
“Enough! We’re calling it quits, go your own way, I am happy without you,” several women sing from the audience, joining the musician who is moved to tears.
On this late-May evening in Mindelo, a city on the archipelago nation’s Sao Vicente island, passersby who recognise the singer stop in the street to join the concert.
Details
Ceuzany’s voice ranges from crystalline highs to deep lows, as she performs everything from jazz to slam, commanding the stage with wavy blonde hair and earrings framing her radiant face.
The day before she radiated infectious energy under the bright lights of a music video shoot, dancing with abandon in a silver rhinestone suit and Panama hat to the galvanising percussion of her latest and fourth album.
The record blends saxophone, percussion and the cavaquinho, a popular four-stringed instrument, although some songs are more stripped down, featuring Ceuzany’s voice and an acoustic piano, or a swaying zouk rhythm set against the warm sound of the ukulele.
Analysis
“I started singing at age 12 in a competition in Cape Verde, and I haven’t stopped since,” Ceuzany Pires, 35, told AFP with a beaming smile.
“My grandmother had dreamed of becoming a renowned artist in Cape Verde, but her parents didn’t want her to sing,” said the mother of two.
“She was always singing serenades at home and I was always listening. It is thanks to her that I have this taste for music and that I deeply love singing,” she added.
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