Sara Tavares is dead. The Portuguese representative at Eurovision was 45 years old

Sara Tavares was only 45 years old, but she had been performing as a singer since she was 16. In 1994, she won everything – she won the popular national competition “Chuva de Estrelas”, then the Festival da Cancao song festival and then performed on the Eurovision stage in Dublin.

Her later solo career was not so spectacular, but in Portugal Tavares was very liked and popular – she was even called the successor of Cesaria Evora. In 2009, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor, which stopped her career for a long time.

Eurovision. Sara Tavares is dead

The singer had been struggling with the disease for over ten years. In 2010, she underwent a complicated tumor removal surgery. Cancer interrupted her developing career – only in 2017 did Tavares return with a new album.

Sara Tavares was inspired by timeless classics – she sang just like Aretha Frankin, she loved Donny Hathaway, she had a soft and warm voice, which you will definitely notice in one of her songs:

Her performance at Eurovision in 1994 is still one of Portugal’s best-rated performances at the competition. Sara Tavares gave her country a high eighth place in the final – since 1994, only three artists have done better than her.

The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, also said goodbye to the singer. He pointed out that in her work she maintained links with performers from Africa – she herself had African roots (her ancestors came from the Republic of Cape Verde). “I sympathize with Sara’s family and express my appreciation for their dedication and determination,” the president said in a statement. Tavares is also mentioned by the Portuguese Minister of Culture, writing about the “premature death” of the artist, who stands at the crossroads of influences from the Cape Verde Islands and soul music, which is supposed to be “proof that openness and diversity are the oxygen for culture.”