Rooted Motherhood 🇭🇹

Cabo love (also called Cabo zouk) is the romantic, slow-tempo zouk that Cape Verdean musicians developed from the late 1980s onward, sung mostly in Kriolu.

The roots (1980s). It starts with French Antillean zouk. Kassav’ from Guadeloupe and Martinique made zouk a worldwide hit in the 1980s, and that sound drew heavily on Haitian kompa. Zouk spread fast through Lusophone Africa and its diaspora, and the slower, sensual style known as zouk love caught on especially.

The Cape Verdean twist (late ‘80s–‘90s). Cape Verdean artists, many living abroad in Rotterdam, Paris, Lisbon, and Boston, blended zouk love with their own traditions. They brought in the melodic, bittersweet feel of morna and the rhythm of coladeira, along with Kriolu lyrics about love and longing (sodade). Gil Semedo, based in the Netherlands, is usually credited as a key pioneer. Grace Évora, Suzanna Lubrano, and later Mika Mendes and Nelson Freitas helped make the sound the soundtrack of Cape Verdean parties and weddings across the diaspora. #zouk #zouklove #haitian#capeverde#musicismylife