[2] During his dinner in Lisbon at the restaurant with Cape Verdean singer Bana, he heard the voice of Cesária Évora for the first time and together proposed.

Cesária Évora attended the Musiques Métisses concert festival in Angoulême, the first to touch a wider audience outside the Cape Verdean community.

Along with the success of Cesária Évora which won herself a Grammy Award for Best World Music in 2004, Lusafrica produced other artists, the company later lost money in the early 2000s,[1] its catalog became most extensive.

In the early 2000s, José da Silva was forced to reduce the catalog and perform some staff dismissals in Lusafrica.

Cape Verdean artists dominates a solid base including Tcheka, Teófilo Chantre, Mário Lúcio, Nancy Vieira and Lura, other African artists includes Meiway, Fodé Baro, DJ Arafat and Bonga Kuenda.