Live Review: Nancy Vieira at OFFest

After her first song, a beautiful slow Cape Verdean morna, Nancy Vieira wowed the crowd in Skopje, by saying in immaculately learned Macedonian: “Blagodaram… Thank you and good evening Skopje, I’m very happy to be in Macedonia.”

The audience went wild and Vieira couldn’t put a foot wrong for the rest of the show. Probably in homage to Cesária Évora, she was barefoot onstage and fulsomely praised Cesária for bringing the world’s attention to the music of the handful of islands that make up Cape Verde off the coast of West Africa.

Appropriately enough, Cesária performed in the first edition of OFFest 21 years ago, when it started to bring world music to Macedonia. Nobody can take the place of Cesária, but if there’s anyone filling her barefoot footsteps it’s Nancy Vieira.

She sang ‘Cize’, a song that commemorates her, though apparently it was written about another Cesária! Vieira is great at doing those gentle vocal slides into and away from the note just as Cesária did. She was backed by a fine quartet of guitar, tinkly cavaquinho, bass and percussion.

Having spoken Macedonian with such panache, nobody can resist when they’re asked to sing in Kriolu in accompaniment to a song by Teófilo Chantre that sums up that sweet duality so often found in Cape Verdean, of happiness and sadness.

Of course, Vieira also offers a couple of Cesária covers, including ‘Petit Pays’, which handily lists a handful of the islands’ musical styles – morna, coladera, batuco and funaná – as well as her signature song ‘Sodade’. A wonderfully assured performance.