Bem-vindu
The sound of Cabo Verde, on your stage
Booking, artist representation and tour support for Cape Verdean music in Europe. Morna, coladeira and funaná, brought to festivals and venues that want something their audience has not heard before.
About
Why this agency exists
Cabo Verde Music Agency is a booking agency based in the Netherlands. I work with artists from Cabo Verde and bring their music to festivals, venues and cultural programmes across Europe.
My focus is narrow by choice. Morna, coladeira, funaná and contemporary Cape Verdean music, performed by artists who carry that tradition and move it forward. I do not represent generic acts or club DJs. The roster stays small on purpose, so every artist gets real attention.
For promoters and programmers I handle the booking from first contact to the stage door. Artist selection, fees, contracts, travel and technical requirements. I communicate directly in English, Dutch and Portuguese.
I am building my European network now. If you are looking for Cape Verdean music for your stage, I would like to hear from you.
I am João Pedro Fortes, founder of the agency. I have direct access to the artists, the families and the tradition I represent, and a clear view of what an artist needs on the road.
João Pedro Fortes
Founder & Booking Agent
Artists
The artists
Artists who deserve a bigger room. Chosen for the music, for the way they play it, and for what happens to an audience when they do.
[Artist name]
[Morna · São Vicente]
[One line: what they sound like and where they have played.]
[Artist name]
[Funaná · Santiago]
[One line: what they sound like and where they have played.]
For artists
Do you belong here?
We are putting the first roster together right now, and we are choosing carefully. If you make this music and you believe your work belongs on European stages, I would like to hear it.
Services
What we do
Booking
I take the whole booking off your hands: fee, contract, travel, accommodation, advancing. You deal with one person instead of five, and you get artists who turn your festival into a night people still talk about afterwards.
Curating & production
Not one act on your bill, but a whole evening. I programme Cape Verdean nights and stages end to end: line up, running order, and the production around it, so a room travels somewhere over three hours instead of hearing a single set.
Artist representation
Long term representation for Cape Verdean artists who want to build a European touring career, not chase single shows. Positioning, showcase applications, routing, and the relationships that turn one booking into a circuit.
Tour support
Visas, logistics, advancing, local transport: the hundred details that decide whether a tour is a good experience or a bad one. Also available on its own, for artists and agencies already working with Cape Verdean acts.
Cabo Verde
Why this music
Our art is our compass, the colour of our Creole blood, the only voice that tells our story without becoming tongue-tied in the confusion of our heritage. Whenever someone has tried to define us, they have failed to see the complex intensity of our kind of Africanity. But our art knows us well.
Since Bana, Cesária Évora and the generation around them first opened our soul to the world, the world has been delighted by our riddle. Cabo Verde Music Agency is one more way we offer that sound, for the world’s delight and investigation: what does it mean to be Cape Verdean?
Our gift to the world has always been morabeza, our ease of spirit; the paths we trace on the seas; sodade, our longing; and artists who sing our mysteries in a simple manner, but never banal.
There is no need to talk about fusion, cultural exchange, notes or lyrics. There is no need to talk. You only need to listen.
Contact
Get in touch
Programming a festival, a venue or a cultural season? Tell me what you are looking for and roughly when, and I will come back with artists that fit.
An artist who deserves a bigger stage, and more people hearing what you make? I would like to hear from you too.
Contact me directly via
Based in the Netherlands