Sara Alexandra Lima Tavares (born 1 February 1978) is a Portugal, Portuguese singer, composer,

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

and

percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

. She was born and brought up in

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

, Portugal, where she still lives. Second-generation Portuguese of

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

an descent, she composes African, Portuguese and North American influenced world music. She composes in

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

and

Portuguese-based creole Portuguese creoles are creole languages which have Portuguese as their substantial lexifier. The most widely-spoken creoles influenced by Portuguese are Cape Verdean Creole, Guinea-Bissau Creole and Papiamento. Origins Portuguese overseas exp ...

languages. Although Portuguese is the main language of her songs, it's not rare to find in her repertoire

multilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

songs mixing Portuguese with Portuguese creole and even English in the same song (e.g."One Love"). Tavares won the 1993/1994 final of the

Endemol Endemol B.V. was a Dutch-based media company that produced and distributed multiplatform entertainment content. The company annually produced more than 15,000 hours of programming across scripted and non-scripted genres, including drama, reality ...

song contest ''Chuva de Estrelas'' (performing

Whitney Houston Whitney Elizabeth Houston (August 9, 1963 – February 11, 2012) was an American singer and actress. Nicknamed "The Voice", she is one of the bestselling music artists of all time, with sales of over 200 million records worldwide. Houston in ...

's "

One Moment in Time "One Moment in Time" is a sentimental ballad by American singer Whitney Houston and written by Albert Hammond and John Bettis, produced by Narada Michael Walden for the 1988 Summer Olympics held in Seoul, South Korea. It was released by Arista Re ...

"), which helped her win the Portuguese Television Song Contest final in 1994, consequently earning a place in the

1994 Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest 1994 was the 39th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Dublin, Ireland, following the country's victory at the with the song "In Your Eyes" by Niamh Kavanagh. It was the first time that any countr ...

, with the song " Chamar a Música" reaching 8th place. She's also known for singing the European-Portuguese version of "God Help the Outcasts" for the Disney movie "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," which won a Disney award for the best version of the original song. She also won a Portuguese Golden Globe for Best Portuguese Singer in 2000.

Early life

Tavares' parents were immigrants from

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

that settled in

Almada Almada () is a city and a municipality in Portugal, located on the southern margin of the Tagus River, on the opposite side of the river from Lisbon. The two cities are connected by the 25 de Abril Bridge. The population in 2011 was 174,030, in a ...

in the 70s. While still a child, she was left in the care of an old woman when her father left the family and her mother moved to the south of the country with her younger siblings. Tavares showed great musical promise from a young age; in 1994 she won the national television song contest ''Chuva de Estrelas'', performing

's "One Moment in Time". That same year, she won the

Festival da Canção Festival da Canção (; "Song Festival") or Festival RTP da Canção is the name given to the national festival, produced and broadcast by Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) to choose the for the Eurovision Song Contest. It was first held in ...

, that earned Tavares a slot in the

at the age of 16. Her winning song, "Chamar a Música," was featured on her debut EP, ''Sara Tavares & Shout'' (1996), where Tavares mixed gospel and funk with her native Portuguese influences. Her debut album ''Mi Ma Bô'' was produced by

Lokua Kanza Lokua Kanza (born April 1958) is a singer-songwriter from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He is known for his soulful, folksy sound. Biography Lokua Kanza was born Pascal Lokua Kanza in Bukavu in the province of Sud-Kivu, in the eastern p ...

and released in 1999. In 2017, eight years after ''Xinti'', Tavares released ''Fitxadu''. The album was inspired in Lisbon's different African sounds and cultures and features a more electronic and urban sound than Tavares' previous works. The album received a

Latin Grammy The Latin Grammy Awards are an award by The Latin Recording Academy to recognize outstanding achievement in the Latin music industry. The Latin Grammy honors works recorded in Spanish or Portuguese from anywhere around the world that has been r ...

nomination for Best Portuguese Language Roots Album.

Artistry

Sara Tavares has named

Donny Hathaway Donny Edward Hathaway (October 1, 1945 – January 13, 1979) was an American soul singer, keyboardist, songwriter, and arranger whom ''Rolling Stone'' described as a "soul legend". His most popular songs include " The Ghetto", "This Christmas ...

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris ( Judkins; May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American singer-songwriter, who is credited as a pioneer and influence by musicians across a range of genres that include rhythm and blues, Pop musi ...

Tina Turner Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer o ...

and

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...

as her favorite childhood artists. Her music is noted to feature a blending of cultures, particularly those of Portugal and Cape Verde. Tavares is among a group of Portuguese-born artists of African origins, that helped bring African influences to mainstream music in Portugal.Sieber, p. 142

Discography

* ''Sara Tavares & Shout'' (1996) * ''Mi Ma Bô'' (1999) * ''Balancê'' (2006) * ''Alive! in Lisboa'' (2008) * ''Xinti'' (2009) * ''Fitxadu'' (2017)

References

Sources

External links

Official SiteSara Tavares online press kit at rock paper scissors
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tavares, Sara 1978 births Living people Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1994 Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Portugal 21st-century Portuguese women singers Portuguese guitarists Portuguese people of Cape Verdean descent Musicians from Lisbon Singers from Lisbon 20th-century Portuguese women singers 21st-century guitarists Golden Globes (Portugal) winners Women in Latin music 21st-century women guitarists