Madalena Iglésias, full name Madalena Lucília Iglésias do Vale de Oliveira Portugal was a Portuguese singer. Born in Lisbon, October 24, 1939 and died in Barcelona, January 16, 2018), was a Portuguese singer.
She won the 1966 RTP Festival da Canção with “Ele e Ela”. Along with Simone de Oliveira, she became one of the most important voices of the so-called national-cançonetismo that dominated in the 1960s.
He was born in Lisbon, in the Santa Catarina neighborhood, on October 24, 1939. He studied at the Conservatory and Escola do Canto and, at the age of 15, joined the Artists Preparation Center of Rádio Emissora Nacional, under the direction of Motta Pereira.
In 1954, he debuted simultaneously on television and on the Emissora Nacional. His international career began in 1959 with a performance on Spanish television. In 1960, she receives the titles of Queen of Radio and Television.
Through Emissora Nacional, she represented Portugal, in 1962, at the Benidorm Festival. In 1964, she participated in the I Grande Prêmio TV da Canção Portuguesa with “Balada Das Palavras Perdidas” (5th) and “Na Tua Carta” (10th). That year she won the Hispano-Portuguese Festival of Aranda de Duero. That year, she made her film debut, alongside António Calvário, in “Uma Hora de Amor”, by Augusto Fraga. She also participates in the film “Canção da Saudade”, by Henrique Campos.
With “Silêncio Entre Nós”, she takes 3rd place in the Grand Prix of TV da Canção. She also records a version of “Sol de Verão”. 1965 is also the year of “Poema de Nós Dois”, theme of the film “Crossing the Level” by Américo Leite Rosa. The soundtrack of this film is by Manuel Paião and Eduardo Damas.
She wins the 1966 RTP Song Festival with Ele e Ela, a song written by Carlos Canelhas in a “surf” style. “Rebeldia” takes 3rd place and “Caminhos Perdidos” takes 6th place. In all themes she was accompanied by the Jorge Costa Pinto Orchestra. In the Eurovision Song Contest 1966 she was a great success and “Él Y Ella”, the Spanish version, was released in Spain, France and the Netherlands.
In 1966, she won second place at the Mediterranean Festival with the song “September”. She also wins the Hispanic Prize with “Vuelo 502”. The film “Sarilho de Fraldas”, by Constantino Esteves, in which she plays opposite Calvário, is a huge success and two EPs with themes from that film are released. In 1967, she won the Casa da Imprensa prize for the year 1966.
Several EPs are published by the label Tecla of Jorge Costa Pinto. The first one includes the songs “Eu Vou Cantando”, “Não Sou de Pessoas”, “Maus Caminhos” and “Romance da Solitude”. The second disc has the songs “Fado da Madragoa”, “Gostei de Ti”, “Adeus Mouraria” and “Noite Acordada”. “Que Mal Te Fiz”, “Gente Que Passa Na Rua”, “Cuando Salí De Cuba” and “Miguel E Isabel” are the themes of the following album.
He also edits another EP with the songs “Amor Vê Lá” (by Manuel Paião and Eduardo Damas), “Saudade Vai-te Although” (by Júlio de Sousa) and two songs by Jerónimo Bragança and Carlos Nóbrega e Sousa: “Mãos Vazias” and “From Step To Step”.
Several themes are edited, orchestrated by Adolfo Ventas, in 1968, through the publishing house Belter, for the international promotion of the singer. That year, she took 4th place at the Song Olympics with “Tu Vais Voltar” and went to the Rio de Janeiro Festival, where she performed “Poema da Vida”. An EP is released with the themes “Poema da Vida”, “Tu Vais Voltar”, “Amar É Vencer” and “Tu És Quem És”.
She participates in the 1969 RTP Festival da Canção with “Canção Para um Poeta”. Belter edits an EP with the themes “Canção Que Meus Cantou Me Cantou”, “É Você, “Oração Na Neve” and “De Longe, Longe, Longe…”.
She married in 1972, abandoned her artistic career and went to live in Venezuela. Eight months pregnant, she also made a program on Channel 4 of Venezuelan television but stopped acting until her children were five years old. Afterwards, she returned to acting sporadically on Venezuelan television to occasionally do a program.
In 1987, she moved to Barcelona. The centenary celebrations of the Coliseu de Lisboa opened on June 8, 1990 and ended on June 9, 1991 with the Grande Noite do Fado de Lisboa. That night, she received the prestigious award and with her friend Simone de Oliveira she improvised “Ele e Ela”. Even more, among the many that there was: Rita Ribeiro and António Cruz in a scene from “What Happened to Madalena Iglésias?”, a great success of the time, created by Filipe La Féria.
In 1994, the publisher Movieplay edited a compilation of the singer in the series “The Best of the Best”. Strauss edited “Saudades de Lisboa”, in 1996, and “É Já Sol Pôr”, in 1997, with songs recorded for the Spanish label Belter. In 2008 a photobiography was released.
She died on January 16, 2018, at a clinic in Barcelona, Spain, at the age of 78.
