"The closest analogy for Ndula’s powerhouse mix is Angelique Kidjo in the first flush of her earlier exuberance. Soulful, stirring, sharp and sassy, Ndula is a new African voice to rank alongside the very best." - Songlines

Born and raised in Luanda, Angola, Vivalda Ndula has become one of the leading voices of the new generation of musicians creating a significant cultural and international impact on today's Angolan music scene. Ndula is an activist, singer-songwriter, percussionist and dancer. She is multi-award winning, nominated/finalist of StarAfrica Sound, International Songwriting Competition, Angola Music Awards and Akademia Music Awards. Vivalda sings mostly about love and social inequality, particularly in Angola. Vivalda also works tirelessly at raising social awareness against child labor, modern slavery, and human trafficking as reflected in her award-nominated songs “Mázui” ("Voices") and "Monandengue" ("Children"). 

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As a young child Vivalda was greatly influenced by her grandfather António Domingos, a storyteller and her great-grandfather Dia Lobilo, a master instrumentalist of the Madimba (African xylophone) and the Kisanji (thumb piano).

In 2004, Vivalda  joined the Minessa Dance Company as a dancer, and in the same year she co-hosted the television show Estrelas ao Palco, that aired on Angola’s Public Television (TPA) network.  Vivalda joined the Afro-contemporary dance and percussion company Manésema in 2006, where she had the opportunity to represent Angola at the 7th International Festival of Traditional Music and Dance in Valencia, Spain. A year later she joined the dance and percussion group Kielela that specialized in traditional Angolan music and dance.   

After forming the Afro-contemporary dance and percussion company Karapinha Dura in 2009, Vivalda started working with Chilean classical guitarist Dr. Marcelo Vilches-Robert (MV-Robert), and began experimenting with the fusion of Angolan traditional sounds and classical music. This creative musical relationship between Vivalda and MV-Robert, gave birth to her first musical Mujítu (The Guest), an Afro-contemporary production, in 2010.  Mujítu premiered in 2011 in Luanda, Angola at the prestigious A Liga Angolana de Amizade e Solidariedade com os Povos (LAASP), and in 2013 in Houston, TX during the 6th Akwaaba Dance and Drum Festival.

In 2013 Ndula also released her first EP, Insanidade Mental (Mental Insanity), garnering Best World Beat Song award by Akademia Music Awards for the song “Marcas do Meu Olhar”. In May 2015, she released her full debut album Africa, recorded in Houston, TX featuring Nu-Classical pianist/composer Kris Becker (USA) and Guzheng player Shiwei Wei (China).   In 2018 she teamed up with Grammy-winning producer Emilio D. Miller and an international cast of stellar musicians, recorded in ten different countries on four continents, to release the critically acclaimed CD Dula.  The songs on Dula brim over with poetic, socially conscious lyrics in Kimbundu, Portuguese, Spanish and English.

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Throughout her career, Vivalda has shared the stage with well known artists and bands such as Salif Keita, Cheick Hamala Diabate, Allen Toussaint, Ruth Foster , Beat & Wind, Cassandra Wilson and Gabriel Tchiema.  In November 2017 she was invited by playwright, theater and opera director Gerald Thomas to sing The Rolling Stones ''Gimme Shelter'' and ''Out Of Control'' for his highly acclaimed play Dilúvio (Deluge). In the past year, Vivalda and her quartet have lit up stages at ¡Globalquerque!, Festival Eclectica and Madison World Music Festival, to name a few.