Cesária Évora, the Grammy-winning singer from Cape Verde, died on Saturday on her native island of Sao Vicente in Cape Verde, according to a statement released by her label, Lusafrica, on its website. No further details were released, according to the Associated Press. She was 70.

Best known as the Barefoot Diva because she performed without shoes, Évora reportedly retired in September because of health problems. In recent years she had had several operations, including open-heart surgery last year, the AP reports.

She rose to fame in the 1950s as a teenager, when she began singing in the bayside bars of Cape Verde. She scored a Grammy in 2003 after taking her music to "stages across the world," the AP reports.

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