What truly sets Mayra Andrade apart? At a first glance, she is a successful singer-songwriter, her talents spanning multiple genres and languages. But beyond her success, it’s her undeniable stage presence and ability to captivate audiences across the globe with her emotive melodies and flawless vocals that stands out. From taking to the stage at the tender age of 15 to performing sold out shows over 20 years later – at the likes of London’s Union Chapel – Andrade is a performer to her core, which is movingly captured in her live album, titled reEncanto.
Andrade logs onto our Tuesday morning zoom call from Lisbon, with a warm greeting and a quiet eagerness to delve into our subject matter. It’s just a few days until the release of her latest project reEncanto, but the songstress is calm and collected, a state of mind I come to understand as we discuss her secure sense of self, as both a person and as an artist. “My Cape Verdean roots are very secure, I’ve lived in Cape Verde at different ages and I had a beautiful childhood there. Although I’ve lived in different countries I know where I come from, my backbone is my heritage. I carry that with me. I don’t have to prove anything about that.”
Andrade is celebrated as a Cape Verdean singer, whose music is deeply rooted in the country’s traditional genres such as Bataque and Morna. She also experiments with West Africa’s Afrobeats, more recently, house music, and has carved out a unique space for herself within the jazz and pop genres. While it can be challenging to strike the balance between honouring your roots and experimenting with new sounds, Andrade has a deep respect for her craft and enjoys embracing new styles, finding her niche within various genres. “I’ve always defended with all my strength my freedom of creating.” For Andrade, music is a personal passion, “I do music for myself, so I have to keep surprising myself. Otherwise it gets very boring for me,” so she creates whatever brings her a sense of fulfilment.
Andrade recognises the responsibility and influence that comes with being identified as a Cape Verdean artist, making the conscious decision to root much of her work in traditional Cape Verdean sounds, a choice that goes beyond cultural representation. “I’ve made albums that are a bit more linked to the traditional music because I wanted people to connect me to my country,” she explains. By incorporating elements of genres such as Bataque – with its complex melodies and emotive storytelling – Andrade infuses her music with the spirit of Cape Verde. Yet, what makes her artistry unparalleled is the ability to intertwine these traditional sounds with global influences. Her versatility allows her to explore different styles without forgoing her distinct identity as a Cape Verdean artist. This is not just an experiment, it’s Andrade’s way of pushing boundaries while conveying a deep connection to her roots. “I think that helps my culture, my country, and that’s what makes me unique,” she adds, illustrating how her music serves as both a tribute to her heritage and a bridge to border, more contemporary sounds.
To enchant again is something many artists attempt and fall short of – yet with reEncanto, Andrade succeeds. Rather than reinventing herself to keep up with modern trends, she stays true to her artistry, revisiting and revamping older and newer tracks from her discography. Why did she not create an entirely new body of work for this release? “I wanted to show that I am Mayra but I’m obviously not the same woman that wrote these songs 20 years ago”. The result is a live album that tells the tale of the past 20 years, and for Andrade, who holds a deep love for the stage, this project gave her the opportunity to “say ok let me rediscover my inner voice… I found it interesting for the first time being able to use just a guitar and voice, which was the way I started in music and the way I originally composed my songs”.
The performance, taken from her November 2023 show at London’s Union Chapel, captures both the beauty of a live atmosphere and the energy that Andrade brings to the stage. A feat that is especially impressive given the challenge of “singing in rhythms that people are not familiar with, in a language that they don’t understand”.
The creation of the live album came about authentically. Many of the songs were originally composed with a guitar and vocals and the project aimed to strip these songs back to their foundations, resulting in a more intimate sound before adding in “groovy variations”. This is also somewhat of a passion project for Andrade, who describes herself as “100% a stage artist”. She admits, “I’m still trying to master the art of creating and recording my voice in a studio environment. On stage is when I create and surprise myself and can surprise my audience. I have this inspiration that comes from the fact I’m singing for real people. It doesn’t happen for me in a studio, maybe a glimpse, but the interesting thing about this project and also why it’s so important to me is because if you want to find out who I am as a performer, as a singer, as an artist I think reEncanto is a pretty good place to start”.
For Andrade, creating music comes with a “naturality”, “music is always present,” but the industry is “different” and her journey to this point hasn’t been without its challenges. So what words of encouragement would she give her younger self? “I would tell my younger self to really trust that all the difficulties, all the barriers, and all the hard moments were for something better. I’ve never had a hard situation or moment in my life or career that wasn’t for a better setup or situation. I’ve always felt in a very concrete way how blessed I am. You have to trust that it’s a journey and it’s all good and you’re gonna be okay. Don’t let yourself be in difficult states of fear or stress or sadness, because in the end all those moments are happening to carry you to a better place”.
Personal experiences are now at the heart of much of Andrade’s music, from paying homage to traditional sounds to exploring universal but deeply personal themes like motherhood. At the start of her career she “would get a lot of inspiration from the outside world,” but then she “started finding my own life and stories interesting enough to write songs about them”. As she embraced the more vulnerable and intimate elements of songwriting she also “worked on how to make these stories more relatable, to give people a bit of me in a way that they can make their own”.
Mayra Andrade possesses a rare worldliness, reflected in her ability to seamlessly blend genres and languages throughout her career. This quality, along with her deep connection to her heritage and fearless experimentation, culminates in reEncanto, an album she describes as capturing her true “essence”. So with the album’s release rapidly approaching, what does she hope listeners will take away from this project? “If I were to disappear and be gone today, I would love for this to be the album through which people find out about who I am”. reEncanto isn’t just a performance – it’s a reflection of two decades of growth, artistry, and a profound understanding of what it means to be both rooted and free.
Listen to reEncanto (Live at Union Chapel)…