World Music Diva Evora Is Taking Her Success in Stride

Cesaria Evora is not exactly what one would describe as the classic image of a world music diva, at least not at first glance. Small, round, approaching her 60th birthday, she has no snappy dance moves, no exotic mannerisms. Standing on stage in relatively immobile fashion, barefoot and stolid, she could simply be singing her songs before a weekend crowd in a small nightclub on the African island of Cape Verde--as she often did in her younger years.

But it doesn’t take long for Evora’s charisma to break through, its impact energized by her singing: the whiskey-warm sadness of her ballads, the subtle intensity of her phrasing, her capacity to pull her listeners into the spirit of her songs, even though the words are in the unfamiliar Cape Verdean Criolu dialect.

On Saturday at UCLA’s Royce Hall, Evora will perform with an 11-piece ensemble--an unusually large band for her. Her presence as a world music diva is so well known now that UCLA was obliged to add an extra concert at 10:30 on the same evening. It’s a far cry from the mid-’80s, when Evora’s American performances took place in small venues in the Portuguese and Cape Verdean communities of New England (home to more Cape Verdeans than the islands themselves). But the truth is that she hasn’t changed her style, and would probably be singing the same way in either location, a high-visibility theater or a local hangout.

“I haven’t changed,” Evora says. “I just sing what I sing. What I’ve always sung.”

What she has always sung is a ballad-like style called morna, rich with what is described in Criolu as sodade, in Portuguese as saudade. Related to Portuguese fado, the morna form also has connections to Argentine tango, Brazilian modhina and Cuban habanera, all of which trace their roots to a blending of European, African and Arabic influences. Similarly, another, somewhat more rhythmic musical form that occasionally pops up in Evora’s repertoire--Cape Verdean coladeira--resonates strongly with the musical pulse of Brazil and Angola.

Her new album, “Cafe Atlantico,” will provide most of the programming for her Royce Hall appearances. Typically, many of the songs are related to the sadness associated with the large-scale emigration--a virtual diaspora--from Cape Verde that has taken place over the past few decades. But she also has explored other musical avenues and other languages.

“We did more than morna on the album,” Evora says. “Two songs in Spanish and one Brazilian song.”

One of the Spanish-language songs is the classic “Maria Elena,” chosen for a surprising reason.

“I am a great fan of Nat King Cole,” Evora explains, “and I can sing in Spanish. And I’ve been singing it for years.”

She is, in fact, such a fan that she also recorded another classic Spanish-language song interpreted by Cole, “Yo Vendo Unos Los Ojos Negros,” which did not make it on to the album. Will it turn up on a future release?

Evora just chuckles and notes, “We’ll see. It depends upon how the wind blows.”

Which is a fair description of how Evora handles most aspects of her career. Although she has sold hundreds of thousands of albums and received three Grammy nominations since her first recording, “The Barefoot Diva,” was released in 1998, she continues to live in Mindelo, Cape Verde, where she was born in 1941. When she concludes this year’s extensive tour--which will make stops across the United States through October before covering Europe through the end of the year--she will concentrate her attention upon her mother, her children and her grandchildren.

Such domesticity may sound strange, associated with a performer who has been compared to Edith Piaf and Billie Holiday. But fame has not deterred Evora from doing things her own way--as will be clear to her audiences Saturday, when they see her take her characteristic mid-show break, seated comfortably at a table smoking a cigarette while her band plays an instrumental number.

“None of this has gone to my head,” she says. “I just try to do what I’ve always done, and to live the same normal life I have always lived.”

BE THERE

Cesaria Evora, Saturday at Royce Hall, UCLA, 7 and 10:30 p.m. $20 to $35. (310) 825-2101.