Balancê in the UK

Sara Tavares album 'Balancê' has been released in the UK two weeks ago. I didn't know about this as all music from Portugal is completely oblivious to everyone in this country, but reading the Sunday newspapers today I came across the review to her album on the the Observer Music Monthly magazine:

SARA TAVARES Balancê
World Connection £13.99 3/5
Three cultures combine to make music to soothe the heart

This outstanding record, produced by 27-year-old Tavares herself, is a musical, sensitive cross-cultural mix. With a hint of the lonely chill of Cape Verde where she hails from, the urbanity of Lisbon where she lives and the carnival spirit of Brazil that shares the same language, it is filled with rich, sensitive and catchy songs. Tavares voice is so expressive that even the slighty comical English ('I loviu, I neediu') that she slips into doesn't impede her. 'Guisa' is heart arresting, but the album as a whole is a pleasure: delicate, warm, inviting and infectious. Mark Espiner

Then I went on to read the Independent online I found another review to the album there too:

Sara Tavares

Balancê, World Connection

By Andy Gill

Published: 10 February 2006

Sara Tavares is a Cape Verdean singer based in Portugal, but dissatisfied with the narrowly post-colonial role accorded her by both cultures. "I want to be a part of a movement like the African Americans and African Brazilians were," she explains. "Instead of doing the music of their ancestors, they have created this musical identity of their own." It's no surprise, then, that Balancê owes little to the most notable Cape Verdean singer, Cesaria Evora, Tavares preferring a more optimistic approach than the older singer's saudade (melancholy) tendencies. Musically, too, her songs and arrangements are informed more by international influences - the boho-jazz vocal style of Rickie Lee Jones on "Ess Amor", the peppery marimba of "Bom Feeling", the blending of reggae and native coladeira rhythms on "Planeta Sukri", and the twinkling guitar style of "Poka Terra" and "Dam Bo", which recalls King Sunny Ade. It's clear from the way her lyrics skip between Portuguese, English and the Cape Verdean Crioulo, that her identity is broader than most, whether she's advocating equilibrium ("Balancê"), eulogising Lisbon ("Lisboa Kuya") or losing herself in the "sweet despair" of love ("Ess Amor").

Download This: 'Balancê', 'Poka Terra', 'Bom Feeling'

I've always admired Sara Tavares quite a lot. Her career started by (brilliantly) mimicking Whitney Houston on the first edition of TV programme Chuva de Estrelas (Stars in Your Eyes). She was this poor girl living with her grand mother on a Lisbon suburb with this huge magnificent voice. She then went on to be the Portuguese candidate on the Eurovision Song Contest with 'Chamar a música' which gave Portugal one of the best scores ever. [How do I know this - yes I'm a Eurovision fan]

This was 1994 and she was 16 years old. It was obvious that it wasn't the direction to go and clear that it wasn't the one she wanted to pursue.

In '99 she released the album 'Mi Ma Bô' which started to show her interest in exploring her Cape Verde roots and to leave the American r&b anthems behind her. She took 5/6 years to write and produce 'Balancê' which was very well received in Portugal last year when it was released.