Cesária Évora
She was a Cape Verdean popular singer also known as the “Queen of Morna”
The Grammy-winning artist was popularly known as the “Barefoot Diva” because she always performed without shoes. Ms. Evora sang the traditional music of Cape Verde, and she mostly sang in Creole language spoken there, but even audiences who couldn’t understand the lyrics were moved by her music.
Cesaria mostly performed barefoot as a tribute to the poor children in her homeland.
She was once quoted by Metroactive as saying “In Cape Verde, where I lived, I was always barefooted. I walked down the street barefoot. I walked in the house barefoot. Ever since then, and now that I travel around the world, I stay mostly barefoot, though I wear little slippers sometimes so that my feet don’t freeze in cold places”.