Bana

Adriano Gonçalves, known across the Lusophone world simply as Bana, was born on March 5, 1932, in Mindelo. Discovered by writer and composer Baltasar Lopes da Silva, Bana possessed a massive, deeply resonant baritone voice that conveyed the heartbreaking poetry of the morna with peerless emotional gravity.

Recording over fifty albums with legendary bands like A Voz de Cabo Verde, Bana was an entrepreneur who founded musical clubs in Dakar, Paris, Rotterdam, and Lisbon that provided livelihoods for generations of Cape Verdean musicians, including mentoring Cesária Évora. In 2012, he was awarded Cape Verde's highest cultural honors on his 80th birthday.