Cape Verdean by birth, Gardenia Benros is a critically acclaimed artist descended from a family of celebrated Cape Verdean singers.
Her mother, known as "Meek," and her grandmother "Nené" were her role models. Nené had popularized the mornas (sad, romantic ballads) of Cape Verde's best known composer, Eugenio Tavares.
A celebrity in her native Cape Verde and in European countries like Portugal, Spain, Holland, France, and Italy, Gardenia recently graduated from Berkelee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, earning a degree in Professional Music. She has released a string of successful albums for PolyGram, the first Cape Verdean ever signed to the label, and had toured extensively, with many appearances on television shows and on the covers of magazines throughout Europe and the former Portuguese colonies of Cape Verde Island, Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau in Africa.
In Cape Verde, there are many female singers, but not many female composers. Gardénia strives to reconcile the two and to be a voice traveling through different places and times, bridging the islands, as well as bringing the islands to the world. —Courtesy Calabash Music
