03 October 2012
Kady Araújo, a backing vocalist for Djodje, Ricky Boy, Dany Santoz and other Cape Verdean singers for more than a decade, has decided that now is the “right time” to take center stage. On Friday night, she held a showcase at the Chill-out Cockpit night spot in Praia to give the public a taste of what her first solo album, which is currently in the works, will be like. In October, she plans to release the single “N Krê Voá.”
The daughter of singer Terezinha Araújo of musical group Simentera, Kady grew up surrounded by music and artists. From a tender age, she began showing the talent she inherited from her mother on the stages of her native Praia. When she was just nine years old, she formed the group Mea Culpa alongside sons and daughters of other members of Simentera. The group revolutionized the teen cultural scene in the Cape Verdean capital at the time.
When she was eleven, she grabbed the best voice prize in the National Little Singers Festival. She went on to become the lead singer in a Praia rock band, Blende, while at the same time dabbing in the dramatic arts with the Teatro de Quintal theater group.
With a scholarship from United States-based Center for Creative Youth, she studied Events Production and Marketing, as well as music, dance and theater, at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
Now, at 25, as she studies for her bachelor’s degree in Tourism, she is finally recording her first solo CD. “I started recording the album, which will be a fusion of the various musical influences I’ve absorbed, last month with Broda Music,” she says.