Mayra Andrade
@ the Royal Festival Hall
14 November 2009

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Biography

Mayra Andrade first appeared on stage in Cape Verde ten years ago after successive stays in Senegal, Angola and Germany. The Cuban-born teenager sang at a charity event organised by the French Cultural Centre in Praia, accompanied only by a guitar and flute. She was only fifteen, but her assurance (acquired in numerous minor family and school performances) was already impressive. The following year, she visited Canada and was awarded the gold medal for song at the Jeux de la Francophonie, a measure of her precocious talent (Mayra Andrade began to speak French when she was six). She was already well-known as a budding star of Cape Verdean song when she arrived in Paris in 2003 and began to perform at one world-music venue after another with a group of two guitars, bass and percussion. Word spread of the young singer and her mellow, fresh, slightly husky voice, whose presence on stage left its mark on anyone lucky enough to see her perform.

Her first album, “Navega”, came as a revelation in 2006. The general public was thrilled to discover her remarkable voice and her new take on Cape Verde’s musical diversity. Mayra Andrade’s work was a modern reinterpretation, rooted in the rich soil of the archipelago’s traditions, but also open to influences discovered on her travels. Following the public and critical success of “Navega”, her second record, “Stória, stória… “, released in 2009, further explored that interplay between the rhythmic heritages of Cape Verde and its transatlantic cousins, Brazil and Cuba. It was an ode to Creolity, enhanced by sophisticated orchestrations and reflecting the musically-multicoloured singer’s thirst for new horizons.

Like her music, lilting and meandering, Mayra Andrade’s approach to her career is anything but linear. It was her need to take on new challenges that led the singer to make “Studio 105”, which heralds a new stage in her work, which increasingly defies any categorisation.