2022 Spring Arts Season:

The Grenchus Foundation @ Elida Almeida Video #1 @360 David Rubenstein Atrium/Hall

Elida Almeida @ France Rocks Festival ~ Atrium 360 David Rubenstein Hall ~ Lincoln Center (2018)

Atrium 360°

Special Tribute to Lincoln Center & 360 David Rubenstein Atrium/Hall

Given we are still in the middle of a pandemic, we will be releasing some of our recorded pieces from the past, that we have never released before! While Atrium 360 ~ David Rubenstein Hall is still closed we will be sharing some of the performances we experienced and enjoyed there …

Enjoy!

Elida Almeida was born in Pedra Badejo in the east of Santiago Island. She spent her childhood years with some difficulty, in the mountains of Santiago. At 17, she sang at church, she listened to the radio, she said on that she grew up on a place without electricity or necessities. She worked on radio commentaries, especially with DJs and presenters. She started writing her album Nta Konsiqui. She later presented at local concerts and sang at bars in Cape Verde where she started her career. The producer Jose da Silva, a resident of France with Cape Verdean origins, who had previously worked with Cesaria Evora,  was interested in her career. Almeida’s style is different from most famous Cape Verdean morna-coladeira singers. She is more influenced by funana, batuque, rhythms created by deserted slaves decades ago, but has a different similarity for the expression. Two years later, she made her first album Ora doci, Ora margos. In December 2014 she performed in Portugal and France; officially debuting later during 2015 in France at  Festival Musiques Metisses in Angouleme. She then went on to take the stage in Paris and the United States in the same month. In November 2015, she was designated a laureate at the RFi awards, made by a jury chaired by the Malian singer Oumou Sangare. She produced mainly on the African continent even at the start of the Festival des musiques urbaines d'Anoumabo (FEMUA - Anoumabo Urban Music Festival) in Abidjan. Elida Almeida was present at the 2016 Cabo Verde Music Awards together with Hélio Batalha. A month later, she went to the 10th edition of JazzKif, the Kinshasa Jazz Festival.

During the summer of 2018, she performed at Lincoln Center which wrote: “Winner of Radio France International’s Prix Découvertes in 2015, Elida Almeida is a fresh new Cape Verdean voice on the world music scene. Born on the island of Santiago and raised on Maio, she developed her vocal techniques with simple church singing while she helped her mother sell fruits and vegetables at local markets. A determined woman and committed champion of the right to education, Almeida left the rural world to write her love and protest songs/resistance music. Blending Cape Verdean beats with warm vocals and a fiery joie de vivre, Almeida has become a celebrated presence at world music venues across Europe, Africa, and North America.” Presented in collaboration with The Cultural Services of the French Embassy, Bureau Export, and the France Rocks Festival - Lincoln Center - NYC - see the Lincoln Center Original Press Release Here. She is scheduled to go on tour in France this season. Please visit her website here to find out More and to see her in France.

To purchase Elida Almeida Music, and to catch up on her tour schedule go HERE

To make a donation to The Grenchus Foundation go HERE