Cape Verdean singer and song writer, Mayra Andrade was on born 13th February 1985 in Cuba but lives and records in Paris. Although she was born in Cuba, her parents who are both Cape Verdean, returned to Cape Verde a few days after her birth.
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As the daughter of a Government diplomat, Mayra had the opportunity to travel to various countries. She moved to Paris in 2002 when she was 17 years old where she began voice lessons and has lived there ever since. At that time, she met the composer, Orlando Pantera, and began collaborating with him. Mayra then began to perform in various Portuguese-speaking regions, including the Cape Verdean cities Mindelo and Praia as well as Lisbon.
In 2011, she collaborated with Trio Mocotó on the track “Berimbau” for the Red Hot Organization’s most recent charitable album “Red Hot+Rio 2.” The album is a follow-up to the 1996 “Red Hot + Rio.” Proceeds from the sales will be donated to raise awareness and money to fight AIDS/HIV and related health and social issues.
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She is multilingual, but most of the lyrics of the songs on her albums are in her native Cape Verdean Crioulo language has been praised for her modern interpretation of the traditional Cape Verdean morna music.
Her fourth album, Lovely Difficult, released in November 2013, is less traditional than her first three efforts and more pop, with collaborations with artists from the United States, Israel, France, and England and songs in Portuguese, Cape Verdean creole, French, and English.
At the age of 16, Mayra won the 2001 Jeux de la Francophonie songwriting contest. She also won the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik (English: German Record Critics Award) for her album Navega in 2007 and for Stória, stória… in 2009 and again won the Newcomer award at the BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music 2008.
