Portuguese singer and songwriter Sara Tavares died this Sunday, in the hospital of Luz.
The family source confirmed the news to Lusa news agency. Sara Tavares was 45 years old.
Sara Tavares cause of death
Sara Tavares died on 19 November 2023 in Lisbon, at the age of 45, from a brain tumour that she had been diagnosed with since 2009.
On social networks multiply the reactions to the death of the singer, from music artists to political figures, among them the President of the Republic.
In a note released on the Presidency’s website, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa recalls the “vocation, dedication and determination” of Sara Tavares.
“We discovered Sara Tavares for 30 years, as a teenager, through one of the talent contests that, in the following decades, would reveal several names that we know and admire today. Portuguese of Cape Verdean origin, he has always maintained a strong connection to his peers, in several collaborations and tributes, and great proximity to African music and musicians, “says Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, quoted in a note.
“In addition to the records he recorded since 1996, she represented Portugal at the Eurovision Song Contest and was nominated for a Latin Grammy. Having interrupted his career for health reasons, he released a new album in 2017 and, already this year, released a final single. Sara Tavares’ family I express my sadness and recognition for her vocation, dedication and determination,” he adds.
The president of the Assembly of the Republic, Augusto Santos Silva, also reacted to the death of the singer. On social network X, the former Twitter writes that “without your voice, we get poorer, sadder.”
In the artistic world, the musical group Ala dos Namorados, which had the collaboration of Sara Tavares in the famous song ‘Return the Kiss’, made a post on Instagram with a brief tribute to the singer. “You will always be with us, Sara. Thank you. Thank you. Even always,” the description reads.
Who was Sara Tavares
Sara Tavares was a Portuguese singer, composer, guitarist and percussionist. She was born and brought up in Lisbon, Portugal.
Second-generation Portuguese of Cape Verdean descent, she composed African-, Portuguese- and North American-influenced world music.
She composed in Portuguese and Portuguese-based creole languages.
Although Portuguese was the main language of her songs, it’s not rare to find in her repertoire multilingual songs mixing Portuguese with Portuguese creole and even English in the same song (e.g.”One Love”).
Tavares won the 1993/1994 final of the Endemol song contest Chuva de Estrelas (performing Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time”), which helped her win the Portuguese Television Song Contest final in 1994, consequently earning a place in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, with the song “Chamar a Música” reaching 8th place.
Tavares was also known for singing the European-Portuguese version of “God Help the Outcasts” for the Disney movie “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” which won a Disney award for the best version of the original song.
She also won a Portuguese Golden Globe for Best Portuguese Singer in 2000.
Early life
Sara Alexandra Lima Tavares was born in Lisbon in 1978 to Cape Verdean immigrants.
Tavares’s parents were immigrants from Cape Verde who settled in Almada in the 1970s.
While still a child, she was left in the care of an old woman when her father left the family and her mother moved to the south of the country with her younger siblings.
Tavares showed great musical promise from a young age; in 1994 she won the national television song contest Chuva de Estrelas, performing Whitney Houston’s “One Moment in Time”.
That same year, she won the Festival da Canção, that earned Tavares a slot in the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest at the age of 16.
Her winning song, “Chamar a Música,” was featured on her debut EP, Sara Tavares & Shout (1996), where Tavares mixed gospel and funk with her native Portuguese influences.
Her debut album Mi Ma Bô was produced by Lokua Kanza and released in 1999.
In 2017, eight years after Xinti, Tavares released Fitxadu.
The album was inspired in Lisbon’s different African sounds and cultures and features a more electronic and urban sound than Tavares’s previous works.
The album received a Latin Grammy nomination for Best Portuguese Language Roots Album.
How did Sara Tavares die?
Sara Tavares died on 19 November 2023 in Lisbon, at the age of 45, from a brain tumour that she had been diagnosed with since 2009.
Source: www.www.atinkanews.net
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