The voice on this album is among those I have believed in most strongly over the last few years. Ever since I heard Nha Vida, I have been telling anyone who cares to listen that the future of Cape Verdean music already has a name: Lura. Some shadows shine with their own light. Those that form this song, for instance. A smoothly burning voice, at once sweet and caustic, providing us with reasons to live. A voice we want to hear on both joyful and sad occasions. A voice that soothes us and sweeps us away. "Listen to Lura," I repeated endlessly, even to those sceptics who pointed out past misjudgements in the young singer's career. Nha Vida rescued the eponymous album (her first) released in Lisbon on the 31st July 1996, her 21st birthday. The following year, the track was chosen for the Onda Sonora Red Hot + Lisbon compilation. Lura's extraordinary voice shines with the dazzling sheen of newly-polished metal among the others on this record, which includes some of the greatest performers in the vast Portuguese-speaking world: Marisa Monte, Caetano Veloso, Teresa Salgueiro, Filipa Pais, Djavan and Bonga.