Dino D'Santiago

On the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Carnation Revolution, D'Santiago gave a performance at São Bento Mansion to commemorate the occasion.

In season 10, broadcast in 2022, he was a mentor on The Voice Portugal.

He appeared at NOS Alive in 2022.

Claudino Jesus Borges Pereira, better known by his stage name Dino D'Santiago (born 13 December 1982), is a Portuguese activist, composer, and musician of Cape Verdean descent.

First appearing in Operação Triunfo, he has released several albums, both with groups such as Expensive Soul and his project Nu Soul Family, as well as solo projects.

He has won various awards from organizations such as Cabo Verde Music Awards and the MTV Europe Music Awards.

He has also been featured on magazines such as GQ and the Rolling Stone.

D’Santiago was born on 13 December 1982 in the freguesia of Quarteira, in the Algarve.

The son of immigrants from the island of Santiago in Cape Verde, he was raised in Bairro dos Pescadores, an older bairro de lata in Quarteira, where his parents had moved to after arriving in Portugal.

In the 1990s, with the popularization of rap and hip-hop in Portugal, he was invited by local rappers in Bairro dos Pescadores to make hooks for their music.

It was during this time period that he began to compose music.

The neighborhood, which after the Carnation Revolution, became the residence of various immigrants that came from the former Portuguese colonies, namely places such as Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe, began to be demolished in 1997.

During this time, D'Santiago, at 15, moved to Bairro da Abelheira with his parents and siblings.

At 21, he moved to Porto, where he stayed for 11 years, followed by a move to Lisbon, where he has been a resident of since then, while also visiting Santiago at various points.

D'Santiago's musical career began when he sang in the church choir while still a child, following the example of his parents, whom sang in choirs and whose rehearsals he helped write.

At the end of the 2000s, he formed his own group, named "Dino & The SoulMotion", and integrated that with his project Nu Soul Family, which he had been a part of for 11 years to that point.

With the project, he had collaborated with names such as Virgul.

While living in Lisbon, Madonna met D'Santiago, who introduced her to many local musicians playing fado, morna, and samba music.

D'Santiago became more well known in 2003 when he accompanied his friend Carla de Sousa to the casting session for the second edition of Operação Triunfo, and was recorded singing to one of the cameras.

He was later asked by his friend at the time, rapper Virgul of Da Weasel fame, as to why he had not signed up for the session.

He went to participate in the show, where he reached the final.

As part of the session, he began singing music for the rap group Black Company and recorded some of his own original music.

During his time on the set of Operação Triunfo, D'Santiago met Ludgero Rosas, who convinced him to change his artistic name.

Afterwards, he became part of Jaguar Band.

In 2008, he launched his first solo album under the name "Dino SoulMotion".

He came to be known as Dino D'Santiago, the name he went by in Cape Verde.

He made the name change as a homage to his parent's home country.

After his participation on the show, D'Santiago dedicated himself to various hip-hop, R&B, and soul projects.

He collaborated with groups such as Expensive Soul, for who he made choruses.

His project Nu Soul Family was awarded the Best Portuguese Artist award at the 2010 MTV Europe Music Awards.

They regularly invited her to their "living room sessions", thus she was inspired to make her 14th studio album, Madame X.

He was joined by on stage with artists such as Branko, Sara Tavares, and Mayra Andrade, the other interval act featuring Caetano Veloso and 2017 winner Salvador Sobral.

He was part of the interval act for the final of Eurovision Song Contest 2018, held in Lisbon.

In 2019, he appeared at both NOS Primavera Sound 2019 and Super Bock Super Rock.

D'Santiago performed at The Jazz Cafe in London, United Kingdom in January 2020.

In 2020, he participated as a composer at Festival da Canção 2020, composing the song Diz só, performed by Kady.

The entry ultimately reached 5th place.

During the George Floyd protests in 2020, he gave a performance at Campo Pequeno in Lisbon in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.

In addition to his work, D'Santiago has also created the website Lisboa Criola, which, led by Bissau-Guinean activist and singer Karyna Gomes and in conjunction with the Portuguese online news organization Mensagem de Lisboa, created one of the first journalism projects to report in various types of Creole languages (in particular Cape Verdean and Guinean) in 2021.

This project was one of 12 projects selected by the New Spectrum Fellowships program to receive a grant.