Mário Lúcio (singer)

Mário Lúcio
Mario Lucio at the FMM Festival das Musicas do Mundo in Sines, Portugal in 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Lúcio Matias de Sousa Mendes
Born	October 21, 1964 Tarrafal on Santiago, Cape Verde
Genres	Colá, coladera, experimental, funaná, ladainha, morna, reggae, rock
Occupation(s)	singer, composer, actor

For the Brazilian footballer, see Mário Lúcio da Silva Junior

Mário Lúcio or Izé (born October 21, 1964) is a Capeverdean singer, composer, writer, politician and a painter. From 2011 to 2016, he was the Capeverdean Minister of Culture.

He was born Lúcio Matias de Sousa Mendes in the town of Tarrafal in the island of Santiago's north in the final decade of Portuguese rule, he is a descendant of Jorge and Garda Brito.

Mário Lúcio lost his father when he was 12. At age 15, he and his seven siblings lost his mother. He lived in the barrack buildings of the Cape Verdean forces in his hometown under the care of the military. After finishing the secondary school, he received a state scholarship and attended the high school, the Instituto Superior de Educação (ISE, now part of the University of Cape Verde and is known as the Faculties of Science and Technology and Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts) in the capital city of Praia to study. In 1984, he received a scholarship by the Cuban government in Havana where he studied and graduated six years later. He returned to his country where he practiced law. Between 1996 and 2001, he was member of the Cape Verdean parliament.

He later founded the band Simentera. His ideas received an invitation by his government and became author of the Cape Verdean Musical Projects for Expo 92 in Seville and Expo 98 in Lisbon. He is a founder and director of Quintal da Música Cultural Association, a private cultural center featuring traditional music. As a composer, he was a member of SACEM (Societé française des Droits d'auteur) with compositions that Cesária Évora and other Cape Verdean artists recorded. He is the permanent composer of the Raiz di Polon Company, the only contemporary dance formation in the islands. In 1996, he recorded an album Nôs Morna, Ildo Lobo's first solo album. He composed at a request of the Porto European Culture Capital on the soundtrack of the play Adão e as Sete Pretas de Fuligem, performed by João Branco. He later attended at Fesquintal de Jazz, the Cape Verde International Jazz Festival whom he founded, several concerts in Brazil and Cuba as well as some European Countries and the African mainland, his notable appearance was the 2011 FMM Festival das Musicaus do Mundo in Sines, Portugal on June 24.