From Cape Verde to Førde :

- Find that good feeling!

Elida Almeida comes from a country with 350 days of sunshine a year. When she goes on tour, she brings the sun with her. We stopped by the young artist's tour life on a cold day in February - and felt the warmth in us.

“ I feel confident in music. ”

— Elida Almeida

At ten o'clock Saturday evening:

Elida Almeida (25) from Cape Verde stands on stage in the French river town of Blois. She performs with a full band: guitar, drums, bass, keyboard, accordion and percussion. The rough vocals lie and play on the rhythms. She is dressed in a bright yellow jumpsuit that lights up. She dances barefoot around the stage and creates her own solar system. She shines on the "planetary" musicians in the band, and she beams at the asteroids in the audience and attracts them to her like a cloud.

Koladera is happy music to dance to. The informal atmosphere at the multicultural house Maison de Bégon contributes to the good feeling. There are tables and chairs along the walls, but otherwise people bring a folding chair and sit wherever they want. This semicircle of bodies and chairs and smiling faces in front of the stage becomes like a palisade and forms a natural dance floor.

The warmth spreads through frozen joints, and our hips thaw. Soon we are dancing as if we mean it. We move our feet with authority, and our arms swing happily. It is summer in the middle of winter, and the cold breeze from France's longest river, the Loire, does not reach here.

In July, the riverbanks along Jølstra will be visited by Elida and the others from Cape Verde - and best of all - it's just a little taster. Dance and dance music are the theme at Førdefestivalen , and the hope is to spread some of that warmth. Imagine that you can see Førde and the surrounding villages from a satellite, and imagine that the image swings back and forth a little for a few days in early July. As if the data transmission is suddenly disrupted, or as if Sunnfjord is trying to create its own solar system for a little while there. Wouldn't that be fantastic?!

At four o'clock earlier in the day:

At 25 years old, Elida can tick off 34 countries on her playlist. There will be more. She and the band are on tour again. They have played in Lisbon and the previous two nights in Paris, and this day started with public transport on a bus and took the five-hour journey from the French capital to the river town of Blois.

Watch the video above!

Once she arrives for sound check at 4pm, she is confronted with the inevitable. These two Norwegians from Førdefestivalen , they have actually taken the trip and would like to do a video interview in English. She has never done it before, so she will definitely be able to do it. "I am confident," she says to herself. She activates her mental core muscles and meets the challenge with direct gaze and with her feet firmly planted on the floor.

"I've always loved dancing," she says, and then she lights up as if she's thinking of something.

- There are many funny stories about me visiting my grandmother. If there was a wedding or other family party in the neighborhood, my grandmother would send me off with something small for the guests, some sugar, rice or juice. It's common in our tradition. But I always stayed up dancing until early morning. When I got home, I was told off. "Do you think you're an adult? I'm the boss here!"

It's not that easy to stop Elida. Even Elida has trouble stopping Elida.

- You have to calm down, I tell myself, but I can't. When I feel something, I just have to dance. On stage, I try to pass on the good energy to people.

Elida talks about her childhood in Cape Verde:

Cape Verde is a group of ten volcanic islands in the Atlantic Ocean, about a thousand kilometers west of Senegal. Strong forces pushed the islands out of the sea, and the country still has one active volcano. The islands were unannounced when the Portuguese landed in the 15th century and made Cape Verde an important stopover in the slave trade. It is safe to say that the country has a dramatic history, but so does Elida.

- I was eight years old when my dad died, and in that moment I felt real pain for the first time, says Elida.

She, her mother and her two siblings were grieving, and in addition they had to adjust to a new economic life. They had to move from the largest and most densely populated island of Santiago to Maio, in the far east of the archipelago. Maio has sandy beaches and forests and is separate from the rest of Cape Verde. Here, her mother supported the family by selling vegetables on the street. It was a life without roads and electricity, and the only contact with the outside world came through the music on a battery-powered radio.

Elida smiles broadly and says that the family is doing well today. She boasts about both her sister and brother, who are about to graduate from university.

- I dropped out of school myself, I like singing much better, she says loudly and warmly.

- I'm doing well. I get to continue with my music, and I think I make a lot of people happy.

Elida philosophizes about finding that happy feeling:

Everyone has difficulties in life, Elida thinks. She is far from the only one in Cape Verde who misses her father.

- In Cape Verde, we often don't have what we need. It doesn't rain, and the crops dry up. It's difficult, but I think we have to be among the strongest people there are. The women in particular are strong. In Cape Verde, the majority are single mothers.

It's because of the standard of living. The men work in other countries to support their families. There are half a million people living in Cape Verde, and probably as many as a million outside the country's borders. It creates a problem, says Elida.

- When you see families gathered on the street, you feel a pang in your stomach. There's something missing, something you didn't have growing up.

Elida has had many difficult days in her life. Days when she has woken up with tears in her eyes.

- But I think, no matter how tough life is, it's possible to find something "happy" in the bad. That's what I try to do in my music. For example, one of the songs is about a conversation I had with my mother when she found out I was pregnant at 16. It was a difficult time. My mother had big dreams for me, I was her motivation to keep going every day. I asked myself: Can something good come out of this situation? I wrote the song Joana. When the younger generation hears the song, they can recognize themselves, and maybe they will think about not having children too early, that it's better to study, get a job and have money first.

Everyone can activate this "crisis package", believes Elida.

- Let's say you wake up with a bad feeling, and that you are not feeling well. How can you get a more beautiful picture of the world today? You have to search. You can go out and take a picture, or you can write - I don't know. Everyone has some form of art in them. You have to get to know yourself: Maybe you can become an economist, a judge - or a driver? Driving is definitely a talent, some people never learn it!

Elida talks about finding her own expression:

The music on the widely scattered islands of Cape Verde has gone in a slightly different direction. There are kolá, morna, funaná, batuque, tabanka. What is common is that the music is melodic and fun to dance to, traditionally used a lot in carnival. But there is also room for serious themes and the downsides of life, and the different traditions have their own unique characteristics. While batuque is a tradition for female singers, funaná is based on the accordion.

Elida also takes music in a new direction. She takes elements from different traditions and builds on them with her own, unique expression.

- I am 25 years old and feel that it is my mission to bring something new to my culture. I listen to a lot of music from Africa, Europe, the USA and Brazil. I am happy with my tradition, but I also think that it is important that we try to talk together musically all over the world, she says.

That we can tune in to the same frequency.

Her first album has reached several continents, and the song "Nta Konsigui" has three million views on YouTube. In 2017, she and the band released the album "Kebrada". Here, her African and Latin roots come to the fore, but the album also contains social criticism of the twentieth century.

At the concert:

The sun has reached its zenith up there on stage. Elida has long since gotten the temperature to creep past an average summer day in Sunnfjord, and she doesn't plan on giving up until she's got everyone into the warmth. She's got the band on her back. They never let her down if she needs a little energy or some encouraging dance moves.

The way Elida sees it, we have a common mission: To look for the good in the bad and to find "happy." So, what are we waiting for? Just shake things up and lighten our feet!

Afterwards :

- I have to eat, she says.

She's back in the dressing room. She needs help unzipping her custom-made jumpsuit. She glances wordlessly at Hernani, who immediately sees what she needs and comes over to help.

Pack up and unpack. Travel by corresponding public transport. Meet the media. Iron the yellow jumpsuit. Gather for the concert. Run through the setlist, reach the climax. Meet the fans, take selfies, sign records. Make the sun rise and spin a summer. Elida has been on the move for fourteen hours.

The full touring life is inversely proportional to the stomach.

Fun fact:

Elida and the band always play a tribute to Bitori, the accordion legend from Cape Verde who went into the studio at a ripe old age and got a new lease on life. He is the reason they have accordion on stage. The stoic and charming Bitori was on Førdefestivalen last year and played, among other things, on Hafstadfjellet 706 meters above sea level.