Deolinda is a Portuguese folk music group inspired by fado and its traditional origins.
Career
The musical project emerged in 2006 when the brothers Pedro da Silva Martins and Luís José Martins (ex-Bicho de 7 Cabeças), their cousin, Ana Bacalhau, then vocalist of Lupanar and José Pedro Leitão, bassist of Lupanar (current husband of Ana Bacalhau ), came together around four songs that Pedro had written, thus creating Deolinda. Pedro da Silva Martins is the author of all the lyrics and songs of the band.
The theme “Contado Ningém Acredita” was included in the 2007 compilation Novos Talentos, released by FNAC stores.
On April 21, 2008, their debut album, Canção ao Lado, was released. Since then, at the end of October 2008, it has reached its top position, the 3rd place, in the official top of the AFP, the weekly table of the 30 best-selling albums in Portugal, having left (and re-entered) for two times in the early days, spent a total of four weeks off this table.
In October 2008, the album Canção ao Lado became a “golden record”. In December 2008 it became “Platinum Disc”. During 2009, the album “canção ao lado” reached the double-platinum award, corresponding to the sale of more than 40 thousand units.
On March 2, 2009, the album Canção ao Lado was released in the European market by the label World Connection. In April 2009, it went directly to 8th place on the World Music Charts Europe and in May it climbed to 4th place on the same chart.
In April 2009, the group began its first European tour. They performed in several countries, including Holland, Germany and Switzerland, returning to Portugal for several concerts in cities such as Porto, Braga and Barcelos.
The album Canção ao Lado ranked 10th in the preferences of Antena 3 radio listeners, in a poll carried out by this station in April 2009, in which it was asked which would be the best Portuguese music album edited between 1994 and 2009 , based on a list of 100 albums released in that period.
On April 23, 2010 the band debuted a new album (Dois Selos e Um Carimbo) which had as its presentation single “Um Contra o Outro”.
The prestigious French magazine Monocle considered the Deolinda one of the most important cultural references of Lusophony in the world, in October 2010.
His second album, Dois Selos e Um Carimbo, went directly to number 1 of the Portuguese top sales and received the platinum award in November 2010. In December 2010, the album Dois Selos e Um Carimbo is considered the 2nd best album of 2010 by the Portuguese magazine Blitz.
Also in December, the album “Dois Selos e Um Carimbo” is among the 10 best World Music albums of 2010 for the English newspaper Sunday Times.
The song Parva que Sou, premiered in the four concerts held at the Coliseus in Lisbon and Porto, in January 2011, was immediately considered an anthem of a generation.
The theme “Parva que Sou” inspires the “Geração à Rasca” movement, which on March 12, 2011, held the largest demonstrations not linked to political parties since the Carnation Revolution.
On November 21, 2011, the first DVD of the group “Deolinda ao Vivo no Coliseu dos Recreios” is released.
In an extensive article, the German publication Deutsche Welle noted that the Deolinda, with their song “Parva que Sou”, “encouraged mass protests throughout the country”, dubbed it the “soundtrack of the crisis”.
On 12 May 2012, the British newspaper “The Times” published a review of Deolinda’s concert in London, where it considered them “one of the great bands in Europe”.
The debut album “Canção ao Lado” is awarded quadruple platinum, corresponding to 80,000 units sold and the album “Dois Selos e Um Carimbo” was certified two platinum (40,000 units) in November 2012.
On March 18, 2013, they released their 3rd album of originals “Mundo Pequenino”, which in the first week of sales became a gold record.
In May, they performed at the Coliseus in Lisbon and Porto, sold out: “…a rare case that the Deolinda are: a group capable of resulting in the most intimate contexts and in the widest spaces; a quartet elastic and generous enough to grow up to ten people in without losing direction, a band, in short, that we like to have around and that we are lucky enough to call “our””.
On July 25, 2013, they performed for the first time in Brazil, during the Garanhuns Winter Festival and in São Paulo. They receive excellent reviews from the Brazilian press.
The Brazilian publication Ask the Pop considered the album “Mundo Pequenino” the best international album of 2013, in December.
On October 14, 2014, they performed for the first time in Mexico, during the 42nd International Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato.
In November 2017 they announced an indefinite break.
Distinctions and Awards
In 2009, they won the “Best Newcomer of the Year” category at the XIV Golden Globes Gala on May 17th. They were the winners in the group of four performers or groups with albums released and who revealed themselves in 2008, a group that included Classifieds, Per7ume and Rita Redshoes.
At the same gala they were also nominated in the “Best Group” category (as one of the four best Portuguese groups with albums released in 2008), sharing the honor with Da Weasel, Mesa and the winners Buraka Som Sistema.
“Canção ao Lado”, Deolinda’s debut album, was considered by the “Sunday Times” the third best World Music album of the year. “Ana Bacalhau and her companions combine the feeling of fado with the sensibility of pop, with an eye on Lisbon’s daily life. The songs are beautiful”, can be read in the December 6 edition of the British publication.
Deolinda are named as one of the revelations of the year by Songlines magazine. Remember that last summer, the “Sunday Times” had already referred to the record, published this year in the USA and in several European countries, as ” brilliant, absolutely brilliant”.
They won the “Best Newcomer” award, given by the prestigious English magazine Songlines, in April 2010.
Also in 2010, his second album, “Dois Selos e Um Carimbo” was considered one of the 10 best albums in World Music by the Sunday Times and the Miami Herald recommended it as one of the 10 best buys in Latin music.
His concert in New York received a positive review in the prestigious “Huffington Post”. In May 2011, they won the Golden Globe for “Best Group”. In November 2011, they received the Amália Rodrigues Award in the “Popular Music” category.
In March 2013, they were awarded the José Afonso prize with the album “Dois Selos e um Carimbo”. “…the already evident qualities of this group: refinement of the melodies and arrangements, which skillfully fuse various influences into an original but genuinely Portuguese whole, excellent instrumental and vocal interpretation, and the relevance and timeliness of the lyrics (which translate into intelligent critical poetry and full of humour), qualities that are combined with innovation and musical individuality and the careful sound and graphic production of the album…”
In May 2014, they won the 3rd Golden Globe of their career, in the category of best group.
In November 2014, Revista Blitz, as part of its 30th anniversary, elected the album “Canção ao Lado” the fourth best album of the last 30 years of Portuguese music.
