Maria De Barros February 19, 2010

Cape Verdean chanteuse Maria de Barros performs salsa-flavored coladeiras and bluesy mornas common to her culture's music. Through song, de Barros often expresses the important influence that French culture and music had on her life growing up in West Africa. A native of Dakar, Senegal, de Barros lived the first 13 years of her life in Naouackchott, Mauritania in northwest Africa. Her creative heart, however, ultimately lies in the culturally rich Cabo Verde, a former Portuguese colony located 350 miles off the coast of Senegal, the birthplace of her parents.