To date, there have been 1,758 entries in the Eurovision Song Contest’s history. As Eurofans, we may only know these artists from one or two songs, but every artist that has performed at the contest has an extensive backlog. This series, Beyond Eurovision, aims to shine a light on some of the That Eurovision Site team’s favourite Eurovision artists’ discographies. Today, a year on from her passing, we take a look at Sara Tavares, who represented Portugal with “Chamar A Música” at Eurovision 1994.
Who was Sara Tavares?
Sara Tavares is in many ways the perfect candidate for a Beyond Eurovision, in that almost the entirety of her nearly 3 decade long career happened after her eighth place finish at Eurovision 1994 in Dublin.
Born in Lisbon to parents from Cabo Verde, Tavares was known for her jazz and world music, incorporating themes of African music, often composing in Portuguese Creole languages, as well as in Portuguese and English.
Throughout her career, she released five studio albums, and had numerous collaborations, including with the likes of Nelly Furtado, Richie Campbell and Lokua Kanza.
The Early Days – Hunchbacks & Hallelujahs
Following breaking onto the scene as a teenager by competing in three shows, one called Chuva de Estrelas, winning the first season with a cover of Whitney Houston’s A Moment in Time – the other two you may have heard of, as they’re 1994’s Festival Da Canção and Eurovision. Following an 8th place finish at Dublin 1994, Sara Tavares released her debut album in 1996, in a collaboration with the gospel choir Shout.
I’ll keep it real, it’s a gospel album, it’s religious. If that’s not your thing, fair enough, but as a non believer myself I think there’s still a lot to be liked about her debut, Do Sonho Eu Sei has an especially good vibe, and there’s clear signs across the album of the artist she would soon grow to become.
Also in 1996, Tavares sang the European Portuguese version of the song God Help The Outcasts that featured as the end credits version of the song in that year’s version of The Hunchbank of Notre Dame, and was highly commended for her version of the song.
Mi Ma Bô
Mi Ma Bô (Cabo Verdean Crioulo for ‘You and Me’) was Sara’s first foray into a true international sound, encompassing sounds from across the planet, but mostly from Portugal and the various Portuguese based creole languages. Produced by the now legendary Congolese singer-songwriter and composer Lokua Kanza, the album was composed in three languages, English, Portuguese and Crioulo.
No more is her sound more prevalent than in my top recommendation from her first solo LP, Cabo Verde Na Coração (‘Cape Verde in my heart’) – a contagiously joyful and loving tribute to her motherland.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Eu sei… is far more sombre, and feels like a spiritual successor to Chamar a Música with a very similar sound, I highly recommend.
Balancê and Xinti
Her third album, Balancé (‘Swing’) is another that strikes the balance (sorry) between Lusophone and Creole based sounds perfectly. For an album released all the way back in 2005, it sounds timeless, with sounds utilised that remain popular in Portuguese music today. If you like at least a few Festival Da Canção songs, you’ll definitely find something to love on here. Annoyingly, this, and Xinti, appear to be unavailable on streaming service.
The album was a massive commercial hit in Portugal, becoming certified platinum, and also earned her a nomination for Best newcomer at the BBC’s 2007 World Music awards, being a runner up to K’NAAN (Who would go on to make one of the best songs of all time in Wavin’ Flag, so a worthy adversary!)
One song I love from Balancê is Bom Feeling (‘Good Feeling’), a really fun and vibey song, which is more than understandable with a song of such a name. The guitar element especially is fantastic, and in a roundabout way reminds me of Leo Middea’s FdC24 entry Doce Mistério, which itself came with a fantastic vibe.
We go back to ballad heaven with Muna Xeia. It means Full Moon, sort of. Wanting to say ‘Lua’ (the Portuguese word for moon) she instead said ‘Muna’ – based on the english word, moon, giving birth to the song name. Tavares described the song in 2007 as “a lullaby for all the women that I knew. I made it for me, for my mom, for my grandmother, for my girlfriends.”
The composition, with blending piano and guitar, is downright beautiful, as is her voice to match, as shown in this 2008 live performance at the Galician based Lusophone festival Cantos Na maré.
She went from strength to strength with the 2009 release of Xinti (‘Feel it’) – By this point it’s become apparent she’s fully blossomed into the matured artist her first albums hinted she was going to be.
My choices for Xinti are two similar yet still opposite sides of the same shining coin. They both have the ‘chill’ vibe that is inherent in her music of this era, but take it in different directions, both in a really lovely way.
Fitxadu and her later work
Fitxadu (‘Closed’) would come eight years after Xinti, and would be her final album. Released under Sony Music, her return to the spotlight was a booming one – it peaked at #2 on the Portuguese album charts, and spent a total of 32 weeks in the top 50. Not only that, it would earn her a nomination at the 19th Latin Grammy Awards for the best Portuguese Language Roots Album.
The most successful song from the album was Coisas Bunitas (‘Nice Things’) – a category this song certainly falls under, with several sounds harmonising brilliantly.
Even over two decades, she never left her Creole roots behind, and that’s clear in Filingadu, one of her more upbeat efforts.
She would go onto make a handful more songs after Fitxadu, her last single, Kurtidu, released just two months before her passing, serves as a reminder both as the artist she was, putting Cabo Verde proudly on display, but also the artist she could’ve been had become had her career not been so tragically cut short. Starting in 2022, with the release of Grog d’Pilha, Tavares started featuring more electric and programmed sounds in her music, bringing a modern spin to her timeless sound.
Tributes & Legacy
Sara passed away a year ago today, on 19th November 2023, from a brain tumour that had been diagnosed back in 2009.
Following her passing, Tavares earned tributes from the likes of Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who issued a statement saying:
We discovered Sara Tavares thirty years ago, when she was still a teenager, through one of the talent competitions that, in the following decades, would reveal several names that we know and admire today.
Portuguese of Cape Verdean origin, she has always maintained strong ties to her peers, in various collaborations and tributes, and a close relationship with African music and musicians.
In addition to the albums she has recorded since 1996, she represented Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest and was nominated for a Latin Grammy. Having interrupted her career for health reasons, she released a new album in 2017 and, this year, she released a final single.
To Sara Tavares’ family, I express my sadness and recognition for her vocation, dedication and determination.
In March of this year she posthumously received the city of Lisbon’s medal of cultural merit alongside the late fado singer Maria João Quadros.
In this series, we try and veer away from Eurovision related shows, but the 2024 edition of Festival Da Canção, the 30th anniversary of her triumph back in 1994, brought up some beautiful full circle moments.
The first semi-final opened with a performance of by a group led by a contemporary of Sara’s in Mozambican singer Selma Uamusse. The group performed a medley of Tavares’ songs, namely Bom Feeling, her Eurovision entry Chamar a música, Balancê, Ponto Deluz, and Minina di Céu.
In the following week’s second semi final, there was another tribute to Tavares, this time coming via the composition of a friend of hers in Huca, and his composition Pé de Choro (crying fit) – which sadly failed to make it to the final.
Why you should check her out:
World music is fantastic, Ladaniva showed that at Eurovision this year, and with their various covers in their contest follow-up Postcards extension of their debut album. If you like anything they’ve ever done, and why wouldn’t you, they’re amongst the most talented Eurovision contestants ever, chances are you’ll love Sara too.
What do you think of Sara Tavares’ discography? Did you find something new to listen to? As always, let us know what you think by commenting below. Also, be sure to follow ‘That Eurovision Site’ on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Threads and Bluesky for all your Eurovision news!
Photo Credit: Diário de Coimbra
Euan T