Mler Ife Dada

Early stage

The genesis of Mler ife Dada has its origins in two improvisation sessions with Nuno Canavarro on keyboards, Nuno Rebelo on bass and Pedro D’Orey on voice and texts. From these sessions, the themes “Zimpó” and “Nu Ar” were born. And it is from the first stanza of this last song that the name of the band appears:

“Mler ife Dada will tell you, I will go young life in hi-ya, new radio will come in blue sky, love, hum, paint a shuttle (…)”

A short time later, Canavarro goes to Holland to study sonology. Nuno Rebelo and Pedro d’Orey decide to continue the project, inviting Kim (Joaquim Pais de Oliveira) as guitarist and Augusto França as keyboardist. With this formation, they compete and win the First Rendez-Vous Rock Modern Music Contest, whose prize was the recording – now without Augusto França – of the maxi-single Zimpó, for Dansa do Som. The album produced by Nuno Canavarro contains the songs “Zimpó” on side A and “Stretch my face” and Springswing” on side B.

Shortly after the recording of the album, Pedro D’Orey leaves the Mlerife Dada and goes to live in Brazil (where he will join the Metrô group under the pseudonym Pedro Parq).

In 1985, Filipe Meireles temporarily became the singer of Mler ife Dada, but in the middle of the year, both he and Kim left the group.

Loves Romance and Things That Fascinate

Also in 1985, Nuno Rebelo invited Anabela Duarte to sing, José Garcia to guitar and António Garcia to drum, with Nuno Rebelo on bass. This new line-up debuted in concert at the I Biennial of Young Creators of the Mediterranean, in Barcelona, ​​at the end of 1985.

In 1986 they recorded the theme “L’amour va bien, merci” for the double-album compilation “Divergências”, which marks the debut of the publisher Ama Romanta. Months later, this label released a single by Mler ife Dada, with “L’amour va bien, merci” and “Ele e ela… e eu”. This disc is recorded in an 8-track studio and is produced by Nuno Rebelo.

José Pedro Lorena joined the group in 1986 where he played bass clarinet, saxophone and keyboards. They sign a contract with the PolyGram label (currently Universal Music Group) which edits the album “Coisas que fascinatas”, produced by Nuno Rebelo. This disc contains the songs:

The release concert for this album took place at Teatro Rivoli, in Porto. This was followed by concerts throughout the country and some concerts abroad: Cáceres (Spain), Cannes (France) and also several performances within the scope of the IV Biennial of Young Creators of the Mediterranean (Bologna, Italy, 1988).

Invisible Spirit, Anabela Duarte’s departure

In 1988, brothers José Garcia and António Garcia left the group. Anabela Duarte, Nuno Rebelo and Zé Pedro Lorena record the maxi-single “Coração Anti-bomba”, with “Outro dia” on the B side. Pedroso as drummer. Bruno will eventually join the group’s new lineup, to which José António Aguiar also joins for bass, with Nuno Rebelo to be the guitarist. With this formation, in 1989 they released their second album, “Espirito Invisível”, with the special participation of Rafael Toral . This album, produced by Nuno Rebelo, contains the following themes:

Sporadic returns

In 2003, Universal Music Portugal decides to make a compilation CD by Mler ife Dada, “Pequena Fábula”, bringing together Anabela Duarte and Nuno Rebelo. This CD features an acoustic version of “Zuvi Zeva Novi”, entitled “Novo Zuvi Zeva Novi”, recorded in 2003 for this purpose. And yet a new version of “L’amour va bien, merci”, entitled “L’amour va toujours bien, merci”.

In 2014, the Mler ife Dada reunited and performed a unique concert commemorating the band’s 30th anniversary, at the Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon, entitled “Pintar um vai-vem”. In this concert Anabela Duarte and Nuno Rebelo were accompanied by Filipe Valentim on keyboards, Tiago Maia on bass, Samuel Palitos on drums, as well as a woodwind trio and a string trio.

Collaboration with plastic artists

Since its genesis, they have had the collaboration of visual artists for the scenography of the shows and creation of the album covers. At the very first concert, in the Rock Rendez-Vous contest , they performed with a look based on fluorescent paintings created by Sérgio Rebelo and Luís Homem de Mello. After Anabela Duarte joined, Mateus Lorena and Sérgio Rebelo were responsible for the scenography and album covers . Anabela Duarte was dressed by Rita Filipe, Ana Salazar and Lidija Kolovrat. Photographers such as Daniel Blaufuks , Pedro Cláudio, João Silveira Ramos and Cathrin Loerke were responsible for the promotional photos.