Carmen Souza
Contact being verified
Born in Lisbon to Cape Verdean parents and based in London, Carmen Souza swings the morna and coladeira in a jazz sung in Creole.
Carmen Souza was born in Lisbon on 20 May 1981, with Cape Verdean parents. She grew up speaking Creole, in contact with the music of Cape Verde and the former Portuguese colonies, and began singing in a gospel choir. At 17, she met bassist Theo Pascal, who became her mentor and sustainable musical partner.
From 2003, they together shaped a style that blended Cape Verdean rhythms — batuque, coladeira, morna — with contemporary jazz. His first album, "Ess ê nha Cabo Verde" (2005), made it known until the WOMAD festival in England. Among other things, he followed "Protegid" (2010), "Kachupada" (2012), "Creology" (2017) and "The Silver Messengers" (2019), which earned him the nickname "Ella Fitzgerald of Cape Verde".
Based in London, she published "Interconnectedness" (2022), with the title "Kuadru Pintadu", then "Port'Inglês" (2024), her eleventh album, devoted to British traces in Cape Verdean history. Her European tour 2025-2026 led her to Paris, where her Creole song continued to travel the culture of the archipelago.