Somewhere around 1997 I first heard Sara Tavares and was immediately smitten. Her sound. Her voice. The way she phrased her melodies. Early on in 1996 her second release was a heavily, gospel influenced album titled Sara Tavares & Shout!, which is another of the many indications of how influential USA Black music has been throughout the African diaspora. 

Sara was born February 1, 1978 in Lisbon of Cape Verdean parents but was raised in a Portuguese household. She has won beaucoup awards but it is her consciousness that attracts me, even (or, more precisely, especially) because most of the time she is singing words I don’t understand.

In an article in Rock, Paper, Scissors she says: “We speak Portuguese slang, Angolan slang, some words in Cape Verdean Crioulo, and of course some English. In Crioulo there are already English and French words. This is because slaves from all over the world had to communicate and didn’t speak the same languages. We are a metisse culture.”

Her aura is of gentle flowing water, but like any of the major rivers, she has a deep undercurrent of sound and sensibility, so soothing. But strong. Ever flowing on. Like a master martial artist, she does not resist life’s blows but rather uses the strength of opposition against itself. Make no mistake as gentle as she sounds, there is steel at her core.

She sings “Planeta Sukri” (Sugar Planet) on her popular 2006 album Balancé. “The poem of this song can be seen as a love poem. I am saying ‘Take me to a sugar planet, take me to place where there is no sadness, no cries. And this place is inside of you and me and everyone.’ I mean it more in a spiritual way than a romantic way. The ballads are very much like little prayers.”

The title song of Balancé has become an international hit. It’s meaning is all encompassing. “For me the song, ‘Balancé’ is also about balancing yourself between sadness and joy; day and night; salt and sugar. It’s about balancing emotions. You are always walking a thin line and you have to keep your balance. You have to dance with that line in order to keep standing. If you stay too rigid, you will fall.”

“The whole album is like little lullabies to myself. All the messages are about self-esteem, loving yourself. About liking what is different in you. About integrating all the parts of you.”

If you Google her, you will find her music, videos, and even entire performances. At the height of her international success, Sara was struck by a major health ailment and literally took years off to heal and, in the process, to meditate on her life, her music. In 2009 she had released Xinti and then she fell ill. It was not until 2017 that the next album came, her seventh recording, Fixadu. As jazz man Albert Ayler had prophesied: music is the healing force of the universe.

Below are informal recordings that illustrate her beauty, her sensitivity, her wondrous vocalizations.

Sara Tavares recordings

• 1994 Chamar a Música
• 1996 Sara Tavares & Shout
• 1999 Mi Ma Bô
• 2006 Balancê
• 2008 Alive! in Lisboa
• 2009 Xinti
• 2017 Fitxadu