Maiuko's family roots go back to the kingdom of Swaziland in southern Africa as her grandmother was part of the royal family there. Maiuko explains that her grandmother was a rebel who chose to marry a commoner, a Portuguese white man. Her grandmother therefore left Swaziland for Mozambique. Maiuko has memories of her grandmother Lisa's words and has drawn inspiration from her bravery and advice about herself as a woman: one of the tracks on Maiuko's first album is entitled 'Grandma Lisa'.
Maiuko herself was born in Maputo, Mozambique and lived as a child in a village near the border with Swaziland. Her parents decided to leave the country to get away from the independence war there. They went back to Swaziland, faced many difficulties, and later moved to Portugal when Maiuko was a teenager. The manner in which they had to leave her homeland where she felt and still feels she belongs made Maiuko upset, angry and uprooted. She says that she has never really had anywhere else she could call home in the same way, and would like to back to Mozambique as an adult. Many of the tracks on her album connect strongly with her experiences in Mozambique.
Maiuko arrived in Britain around 1993 and has been based there since then. In an interview on BBC Radio 4's Women's Hour, in September 2001 Maiuko spoke of the musical influences of members of her immediate family: her father, mother and aunt.
A live appearance at the Montreux Jazz Festival brought Maiuko to the attention of label RL-2 producers Maquenzie and Paul Lilly. She has worked with legendary blues guitarist Jeff Beck, has had frequent headliners at Ronnie Scott’s in London, a performance at the 2002 Sony Radio Academy Awards and a European tour later that year.
Maiuko's amazing singing voice has been likened to “a less raspy Macy Gray, or even the dulcet jazz tones of Erykah Badu” (Wax). Her song-writing skills