She composes. She tells stories — some born of what she observes in silence, others of what she lives in imagined worlds. And all of it becomes songs you listen to with a smile.
A smile... yes, she smiles when she sings. Truly, she blends that smile with a slight narrowing of the eyes that, depending on the song, lends the listener either delight or joy. She sings with her eyes too.
Her voice is experience — the kind that can't be explained, only felt. Versatile, she moves through songs carried on the sway of gentle breezes, crosses the force of Santiago's sounds, and dives into improvisation on a stage that seems to be hers alone. And there's always room, in the end, for that syncopated bossa beat which — beyond the genre's classics — leaves its mark on her own compositions too.
In every style, she finds a tonality; for every moment, she raises or lowers the key as the song demands. And in every key, she adds variations that carry her — and us — to singular moments.
In her shows, she mixes her own songs with the music of Cabo Verde, above all from Mindelo and Santiago. She wanders, too, through the vocal-jazz standards, through French chanson, and — with particular fondness — through bossa nova.
She wanted a guitar of her own. She chose a model by the luthier Aniceto Baptista — rounded at the top, with a curve at the base — that seems to have been designed to fit into her lap. Onstage, the fusion is almost perfect: artist and instrument become one.
As for stages, she's made for all of them. I've seen her at a reception for 500, at the opening of a themed week for an international institution — for which she composed an anthem in defence of the environment — and in the iconic bars of Plateau. In every one, the right repertoire, in just the right measure.
I bring up the guitar again... and I'll risk saying it: hers is among the most intense voices in the voice-and-guitar format in our music since Khyra Tavares. I say intensity so as not to say presence — because that is exactly what it is.
The other day, I was talking with a fellow musician who argued that the greater presence of female voices onstage may be tied to the scarcity of this format in our music. Here, that's the answer. And perhaps she is, at this moment and in our music scene, the only one of her generation able to carry an entire concert in this format. She knows how to play, she knows how to use the guitar — and she knows how to hold a stage.
This week, before leaving for her second European tour, she was in the city of Praia. She passed through the landmarks of our musical route and closed with a delicious moment at Espaço Batuku, in Cidade Velha, where she surely won over even more listeners. She released her first work, "Mas um Melodia," and is preparing the second for this year.
To close, two things that intertwine and make this singer, composer and instrumentalist a rare case, with a sure future ahead: an absolute, unforced professionalism, and a humility as wide as the word itself.
And when the last note fades, it's the name that remains: Claudia Sofia.