Cesária Évora Announces Retirement From Music

Legendary Cape Verdean singer Cesária Évorahas announced her retirement from music in an official press statement posted on the website of her Lusafrica label late last week.

The press statement read:

'Cesaria Evora will not perform the shows she was going to give in the coming weeks.

The Cape Verdean singer who just turned seventy on 27 August and had been seen in excellent shape on the stage of Parisian venue Grand Rex arrived  a few days ago in Paris in a state of great weakness. These new health issues follow the several surgeries she had within the past years including an open heart surgery in may 2010.

The physicians following her in Paris having ordered her to cancel her upcoming tour, Cesaria has decided along with her producer and manager José da Silva to retire definitely from her artistic career hence renouncing to the nomad life which has taken her to the four corners of the planet since her great international debut in 1991.'

In an interview given to daily newspapers Le Monde, Cesaria Evora explains her decision to journalist Véronique Montaigne and adresses a love message to all her admirers: 'I'm sorry, but now I have to rest. I have no energy. I infinitely regret having had to absent myself because of illness - I would have liked to keep giving pleasure to those who've followed me so long.'