Mísia, artistic name of Susana Maria Alfonso de Aguiar born in Porto on June 18, 1955, is a Portuguese singer, considered one of the most important fado singers today.
Until her late teens, Mísia lived in her hometown, occasionally singing in fado houses, always as an amateur.
When she was almost 20 years old, she moved, for family reasons, to Barcelona and, later, to Madrid. Her artistic streak was already very evident, leading her to become involved in music, dance, music-hall and television productions. However, the vocation that would make her famous had not yet materialized. It was in 1991 that this path began to be followed, when Mísia decided to return to Portugal, settling in Lisbon, determined to build her own repertoire within the universe of fado.
Never forgetting the revelation that traditional fado meant to her during her adolescence in Porto, Mísia feels, on this return to Portugal, that, instead of relying on musical successes from artists she admires, she should create her own repertoire. . Thus begins what, according to journalist and writer Manuel Halpern, will come to be called Novo Fado.
Imbued with this spirit of mission, Mísia personally contacts Portuguese poets and composers, singer-songwriters, photographers, designers and stylists, presenting her vision of fado to them.
Among the figures of national culture who accept to write specifically for their voice are the Nobel Prize for Literature José Saramago, Agustina Bessa-Luís, José Luís Peixoto, Lídia Jorge, Vasco Graça Moura, Mário Cláudio, Paulo José Miranda, Hélia Correia and Amélia Muge, as well as musicians Jorge Palma, Vitorino and Sérgio Godinho, among others.
Internationally, she also received significant attention: Patrice Leconte directed one of her music videos, John Turturro chose her for his film Passione, William Christie programmed her at the Cité de la Musique in Paris.
At a time when everything was yet to be done, when it came to the consecration of fado in the world, since outside of Portugal the only reference that the public had for this musical genre was that of the great Amália Rodrigues, Mísia began to carve out her own space in the national song.
For years on end, he consolidated a national and international career, performing on stages of great global prestige, with emphasis on the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, in Lisbon, the Town Hall in New York, the Royal Theater Carré in Amsterdam, the Teatro Maria Guerrero, in Madrid, the Palau de la Musica, in Barcelona, the Cour d’Honneur du Palais des Papes, in Avignon, the Piccolo Teatro, in Milan and the Theater Coccoon in Tokyo. In Paris, she leaves her mark in venues such as the Olympia, the Thêatre des Bouffes du Nord (with programming by Peter Brook) and the Cité de La Musique, contributing to the enrichment of modern-day fado and its recognition. During this journey, Mísia respects tradition, transporting it, at the same time, to the periphery of contemporary times, both in form and content.
Throughout her career, memorable concerts followed, with Mísia taking fado to venues and festivals that had never embraced it, such as the Grand Auditorium of Culturgest, in Lisbon, the Avignon Festival, at the Théatre du Châtelet, in Paris , the Berliner Philharmonie in Berlin, the Hong Kong Arts Festival and the WOMAD festival.
In the celebration of timeless and universal feelings, not only in Portuguese but also in several other languages, Mísia is the Portuguese singer who arouses the greatest international cult, seeing her work recognized with laudatory reviews in the most relevant publications in the world press, such as Billboard and Gramophone or the New York Times, Libération, Die Zeigt, The Washington Post and The Independent.
With this “contemporary” fado, she achieved great success all over the world and saw her musical talent recognized with the attribution of several prizes and decorations: in Portugal she was awarded the Medal of Merit and won the Amália Rodrigues Prize in in the International Promotion category, in Italy he wins the Carossone Prize and the Gilda Film Prize and in France he receives the Medaille de Vermeil, the highest decoration of the city of Paris. In a country that has always known how to welcome her, she is still named Chevalier and, later, Officier de l’ Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la République Française.
Chilean filmmaker Carmen Castillo makes two films about Mísia for the Franco-German channel ARTE.
Conceptual artist Sophie Calle invites you to participate in her project Prenez soin de vous at the 52nd Venice Biennale.
Mísia is a “character voice” who participates in several alternative projects to her career as a fado singer. Examples of this versatility are: The Soldier’s History, by Stravinsky, The Seven Deadly Sins of the Petit Bourgeois, by Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht, Maria de Buenos Aires by Piazzolla and Ferrer, as well as his participation in the album Mediterranean by the baroque group L’ Arpeggiata. In 2010, Mísia participated as an actress in the film “Passione”, directed by Italian-American actor/director John Turturro and, in 2013, in the play L’Abattoir Invisible by Karin Serres.
In February 2015, Mísia was accompanied by the Bremen Philharmonic to perform a repertoire that included not only fado, but also Lieder by Schubert.
In 2016 she directed Giosefine, a theatrical project based on a text Letter from Casablanca by Antonio Tabucchi and directed by Guillermo Heras. World premiere at Teatro Regio in Buenos Aires.
She was recently invited by pianist Maria João Pires to participate in the Canto da Terra project, which took place in Belgais, Portugal.
Source: https://www.misia-musik.com/
