Tag: Fado

Catarina Rocha

Portugal Music

Catarina Rocha, is the new revelation of Fado. If “LUZ” (produced by Diogo Clemente) had already been considered one of the best albums released in 2017, now, Catarina Rocha brings more “LIFE” to fado! After hits like “Novo mar” and “Moeda de Troca”, the singles released from her previous album, the singer now brings us “Fado Abananado” which is the flagship of the album “VIDA” and which promises to be a success both for its musicality and lyrics and for Catarina Rocha’s interpretation. “Fado Abananado” has lyrics by one of…

Fadomorse

Portugal Music

It would not be very expected that one of the most interesting projects mixing the concepts of pop and traditional music would have taken place in Mirandela, but perhaps this is one of the great Portuguese prejudices, that of expecting that what is announced will always come from the big cities. 2000 was the year the group was born, but it was only two years later, in July, that we were treated to their first album, “Gritar o Fado”, an innovative work but still tied to some assumptions normally present…

Marta Pereira Da Costa

Portugal Music

Marta Pereira da Costa (Lisbon, September 9, 1982) was the first woman to play fado professionally on the Portuguese guitar. He has roots in Macau, as his mother is Macanese and his maternal grandfather was from Shanghai, but it was only in March 2024 that he visited the territory for the first time on the occasion of a concert he gave as part of Rota das Letras – Macau Literary Festival. The Portuguese guitar is well associated with Fado, and Marta, not forgetting her roots and tradition, risked new sounds…

Cristina Branco

Portugal Music

Cristina Branco is an indefatigable ambassador of Portuguese culture around the world. Over the last two decades, she has established herself as one of the most prolific singers today, producing a remarkable discography. Traditional Portuguese music is her main aesthetic root, but the influence of Jazz, literature and the musicians with whom she shares the stage, give her music a universal nature and a sublime charm. She began her journey in Holland, where she recorded Cristina Branco in Holland (Live) (1997), an album that ended up becoming a real success…

Mísia

Portugal Music

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…

Hermínia Silva

Portugal Music

Hermínia Silva was born at the São José Hospital in Lisbon, on October 23, 1907, to an unknown father and Josefina Augusta, a native of Samora Correia and widow of Manuel Joaquim Lopes Ramos for 5 years. She was baptized in the church of São José hospital on November 5, 1907, and the act of baptism was not charged due to the family’s poverty. She had two brothers: Emília, the oldest, and Artur, the youngest. When she was just eight months old, the family moved to the Castelo neighborhood. She…

Gisela João

Portugal Music

One of the voices of fado, Gisela João is an important interpreter of current Portuguese music, recognized with the Blitz, Time Out, Expresso awards and the Golden Globe for Best National Performer. Gisela’s presence on national and international stages, as well as her performances, were decisive in establishing herself as an interpreter of Portuguese music, presenting contemporary Fado without deviations or artifice, emphasizing the tradition and authenticity of this style. Gisela became interested in Fado when she was eight years old. Between the ages of 16 and 17, she sang…

Ricardo Ribeiro

Portugal Music

Ricardo Alexandre Paulo Ribeiro was born on August 19, 1981, in Lisbon. He was raised in Bairro da Ajuda, having started singing at the age of 9 for his friends. Driven by an aunt, his debut took place at the age of 12, in the Grupo Desportivo “A Académica da Ajuda”, being accompanied on guitar by Carlos Gonçalves and on viola José Inácio, who would become one of his teachers. He participated in the 1996 Grande Noite do Fado, in Lisbon, taking 2nd place. He wins this Casa da Imprensa…

Katia Guerreiro

Portugal Music

Katia Duarte d’Almeida d’Oliveira Rosado Guerreiro (23 February 1976), better known simply as Katia Guerreiro, is a Portuguese fado singer and ophthalmologist born in South Africa. She divides her life between her passions for music and medicine. She is one of the most international Portuguese fado singers. Her fado is characterized by great lyrical richness, singing contemporary Portuguese writers, with emphasis on António Lobo Antunes. She had a geographically turbulent path. She was born in South Africa, she grew up on São Miguel Island, in the Azores, where she attended…

Dead Combo

Portugal Music

Dead Combo was a Portuguese band whose main musical influences were Fado, Rock, Western soundtracks, as well as music from South America and Africa. The band consisted of just two members: Tó Trips (guitars) and Pedro V. Gonçalves (double bass, kazoo, melodica and guitars). The members met in 2001, when at the end of a concert, Tó asked Pedro for a ride without knowing that he didn’t have a car. They then both walked to Bairro Alto and, in the middle of the conversation, the idea of recording an album…

Ana Laíns

Portugal Music

Source: museudofado.pt Ana Laíns sings for the first time in public at the age of 6. Born in Tomar, she discovered her talent for music at an early age and at the age of 15 she sang her first fado in public. After winning the Grande Noite do Fado de Lisboa in 1999, she decided to bet on her musical career and performed in the United States, Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. Despite having signed her first record contract in 2003 with “Difference”, she only felt mature enough to record her…

Lenita Gentil

Portugal Music

Maria Helena Gentil do Carmo, better known as Lenita Gentil (Marinha Grande, August 6, 1948), is a Portuguese fado singer. Lenita started singing in public at the age of 5. At the age of 16, she made her debut at Emissores do Norte Reunidos, in Porto. Her CV includes several stints at national and international music festivals. At the well-known Figueira da Foz Song Festival, she participated in the 1967 edition, the winner of which was Tonicha with the song “A tua canção avozinha”. She takes 2nd place at the…

Ada De Castro

Portugal Music

Ada Antunes Pereira was born in the parish of Castelo which led her to adopt the stage name of Ada de Castro, a synonymous of her neighbourhood of birth. She began her artistic career as an amateur actress at Grupo da Juventude Operária Católica. During a rehearsal, newsreader Julieta Fernandes heard her sing and invited her to perform live at a radio programme of broadcaster Rádio Graça. Ada de Castro (artistic name, meaning Castle, the Lisbon district of her birth) “was born”. She began to work at fado houses and…

Buba Espinho

Portugal Music

Buba Espinho, a young singer from Alentejo aged just 24, brings with him the legacy of several generations of traditional Portuguese music. Born in Beja, he has experienced and felt roots music intensely from an early age, through the hand of his father, also a musician, who passed on to him the important mission of preserving it. The relationship between two intangible cultural heritages of humanity, Cante Alentejano and Fado, is felt when we listen to it.​Let’s close our eyes, let ourselves be carried away on a true and unforgettable…

Hoje Project

Portugal Music

The Hoje project began in 2009 as an idea from Nuno Gonçalves from The Gift: to bring Amália Rodrigues’ fados to the universe of contemporary pop. After taking as a starting point a musical arrangement of the classic “Gaivota”, Gonçalves recruited his colleague from The Gift, Sónia Tavares, Fernando Ribeiro from Moonspell and Paulo Praça (ex-Plaza, Turbo Junkie) to sing the new versions. “Formiga Bossa Nova”, “Abandono”, “Foi Deus”, “Grito”, “Nome de Rua” and the French theme “L’Importance C’est La Rose” were some of the songs chosen to go through…

Cidália Moreira

Portugal Music

Cidália Moreira is a Portuguese singer, actress and fado singer born in Olhão, Portugal, in 1944. She is known as the “gypsy fado singer”. From an early age, she demonstrated her passion for singing and dancing, and this was reflected in her school parties, where she stood out. At the age of 7, she became the lead singer of a dance entertainment group, in which she remained until she was 14. In 1973, she left for Lisbon and made her professional debut at the Viela restaurant, on Rua das Taipas.…

What is actually… the Portuguese Guitar

Portugal Music

Like other European cisterns, it represents both in terms of tuning and in terms of the construction of its interior and exterior, one of the direct developments of the Renaissance European cistern. This instrument was strongly present in court music throughout Europe, but especially in Italy, France and England from the mid-16th century to the end of the 18th century. There are still hundreds of well-preserved examples of this instrument scattered in various museums throughout Europe. The first cisterns with slight alterations in the size of the sounding board, neck,…

Carminho

Portugal Music

Maria do Carmo de Carvalho Rebelo de Andrade (Lisbon, August 20, 1984), artistically known simply as Carminho is a Portuguese singer and songwriter. She is the daughter of Teresa Siqueira, also a fado singer, and is considered one of the most talented and innovative fado singers of her generation, also performing in other musical genres, such as Portuguese popular music, Brazilian popular music, bossa nova, jazz and pop. Carminho was born on August 20, 1984, in the city of Lisbon, Portugal, to Nuno Maria Bello Rebelo de Andrade and Maria…

April 25th and Portuguese Music

Portugal Music

Celebrating April 25th: The Music of Portugal April 25th, also known as the Carnation Revolution, marks the day when Portugal transitioned from a dictatorship to a democratic government in 1974. This day is celebrated annually in Portugal as a national holiday, and music plays a significant role in the festivities. Portuguese music is characterized by its rich history, diverse influences, and unique styles. From traditional fado music to modern pop, Portugal has a vibrant music scene that reflects its cultural heritage. Fado Music Fado is a genre of music that…

Pop music in Portugal

Portugal Music

The international opinion about Portuguese Music is that it’s Fado. Since 1939, when Amália Rodrigues, wowed audience wordwide with the songs of the urban poor fado has been the internationally popular genre from Portugal. Nowadays her younger heirs like Mariza, Mísia and Camané, Cristina Branco, Ana Moura and so on kept the Fado legacy alive and dominate the record stores at the Worldmusic section. The dominance of Fado overshadows the other genres even other folk genres like the Trás-os-Montes. In fact rock music sort of arrived to Portugal in the…

António Mourão

Portugal Music

António Mourão, artistic name of António Manuel Dias Pequerrucho, (Montijo, June 3, 1935 – Lisbon, October 19, 2013) was a Portuguese fado singer. Interpreter of the well-known theme “Ó Tempo Volta para Trás”, he withdrew from the artistic world in the 90s. It was while fulfilling his mandatory military service that his voice began to stand out. He began to sing, as an amateur, in Lisbon’s fado houses. In 1964, he was hired for “Parreirinha de Alfama”, typical house of Argentina Santos, where he made his professional debut. Then he…

Alfredo Marceneiro

Portugal Music

Alfredo Rodrigues Duarte was born in a house on Travessa de Santa Quitéria, in São Bento, on February 29, 1892 — an unusual date that only happens every four years. Therefore, his mother officially registered the birth as having occurred on the 25th of that month, the birthday of his father, who was a master of cutting and had a small shoe shop on Rua de São Bento. It was with his mother that he learned to sing, as a child, during the “disshirted” corn farming in Cadaval, where his…

Adriano Correia de Oliveira

Portugal Music

Adriano Maria Correia Gomes de Oliveira, or just Adriano (April 9, 1942 – October 16, 1982) was a Portuguese musician, born to a conservative Roman Catholic family in Porto. His family moved to Avintes after his birth. He went to Coimbra to study at the University of Coimbra, and eventually dropped out, albeit being involved in the student activism and Coimbra fado music. Adriano was part of a generation of composers and singers of political songs that used music and lyrics to fight against the Estado Novo dictatorial regime. For…

Mariza

Portugal Music

Marisa dos Reis Nunes, born 16 December 1973, known professionally as Mariza, is a Portuguese fado singer. Mariza was born in Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique, to a Portuguese father, José Brandão Nunes, and a Mozambican mother, Isabel Nunes. When she was three years old, her family moved to Metropolitan Portugal, and she was raised in Lisbon’s historic quarters of Mouraria and Alfama. While very young she began singing in a wide variety of musical styles, including gospel, soul and jazz. Her father strongly encouraged her to adopt fado; he felt…