Born in Lisbon, Portugal, official documents have her date of birth as the 23rd July, but Rodrigues always said her birthday was the 1st July 1920. She was born in the rua Martim Vaz (Martim Vaz Street), freguesia of Pena, Lisbon. Her father was a trumpet player and cobbler from Fundão who returned there when Amália was just over a year old, leaving her to live in Lisbon with her maternal grandmother in a deeply Catholic environment until she was fourteen, when her parents returned to the capital and she moved back in with them.
She was known as the "Rainha do Fado" ("Queen of Fado"), and was most influential in popularising fado worldwide. She was unquestionably the most important figure in the genre’s development, by virtue of an innate interpretive talent carefully nurtured throughout a forty-year recording and stage career. Rodrigues' performances and choice of repertoire pushed fado’s boundaries and helped redefine it and reconfigure it for her and subsequent generations. In effect, Rodrigues wrote the rulebook on what fado could be and on how a female singer - or fadista - should perform it, to the extent that she remains an unsurpassable model and an unending source of repertoire for all those who came afterwards.
After a few years of amateur performances, Rodrigues’ first professional engagement in a fado venue took place in 1939, and she quickly became a regular guest star in stage revues. There she met Frederico Valério, a classically-trained composer who, recognising the potential in such a voice, wrote expansive melodies custom-designed for Rodrigues’ voice, breaking the rules of fado by adding orchestral accompaniment.
Her Portuguese popularity began to extend abroad with trips to Spain, a lengthy stay in Brazil (where, in 1945, she made her first recordings on Brazilian label Continental) and Paris (in 1949). In 1950, while performing at the Marshall Plan international benefit shows, she introduced "April in Portugal" to international audiences (under its original title "Coimbra"). In the early fifties, the patronage of the acclaimed Portuguese poet David Mourão-Ferreira marked the beginning of a new phase; Rodrigues sang many of the country's greatest poets, and some wrote lyrics specifically for her.
In 1954, Rodrigues' international career skyrocketed through her presence in Henri Verneuil’s film The Lovers of Lisbon, where she had a supporting role and performed on-screen. By the late 1950s the USA, England, and France had become her major international markets (Japan and Italy followed in the 1970s); in France especially, her popularity rivalled her Portuguese success, and she graduated to headliner at the prestigious Olympia theatre within a matter of months. Over the years, she performed nearly all over the world, going as far as the Soviet Union and Israel.
At the end of the 1950s, Rodrigues took a year off. She returned in 1962 with a richer voice, concentrating on recording and performing live at a slower pace. Her comeback album, 1962's Amália Rodrigues, was her first collaboration with French composer Alain Oulman, her main songwriter and musical producer throughout the decade. As Valério had before him, Oulman wrote melodies for her that transcended the conventions of fado. Rodrigues did not shy away from controversy: her performance in Carlos Vilardebó’s 1964 arthouse film The Enchanted Islands was better received than the film, based on a short story by Herman Melville, and her 1965 recording of poems by 16th century poet Luís de Camões generated acres of newspaper polemics. Yet her popularity remained untouched. Her 1968 single "Vou Dar de Beber à Dor" broke all sales records, and her 1970 album Com que Voz, considered by many her definitive recording, won a number of international awards.
During the 1970s, Rodrigues concentrated on live work, and embarked upon a heavy schedule of worldwide concert performances. During the frenetic period after the 25th April 1974 she was falsely accused of being a covert agent of the PIDE, causing some trauma to her public life and career. (In fact, during the Salazar years, Rodrigues had been an occasional financial supporter of some communists in need.) Her return to the recording studio in 1977 with Cantigas numa Língua Antiga was received as a triumph. The 1980s and 1990s brought her enthronement as a living legend. Her last all-new studio recording, Lágrima, was released in 1983. It was followed by a series of previously lost or unreleased recordings, and the smash success of two greatest hits collections that sold over 200,000 copies combined.
Despite a series of illnesses involving her voice, Rodrigues continued recording as late as 1990. She eventually retreated from public performance, although her career gained in stature with an official biography by historian and journalist Vítor Pavão dos Santos, and a five-hour television series documenting her fifty-year career, featuring rare archival footage (later distilled into the ninety-minute film documentary, The Art of Amália). Its director, Bruno de Almeida, has also produced Amália, Live in New York City (a concert film of her 1990 performance at New York City Hall).
Rodrigues died on the 6th October 1999 at the age of seventy-nine in her home in Lisbon. Portugal's government promptly declared a period of national mourning. Her house (in Rua de São Bento) is now a museum. She is now buried at the National Pantheon alongside other Portuguese notables.
1946.
A chave da minha porta
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Começou o namorico
E dei-te o meu coração
Em troca de um manjerico
O nosso amor começou
No baile da minha rua
Quando São Pedro chegou
Esperava por ti
Como é de ver de quem ama
Tu vinhas tarde p'ra casa
Eu ia cedo p'rá cama
P'ra me enganar
Que a esperança em mim estava morta
Deixava a chave a espreitar
Debaixo da minha porta
Deixava a chave a espreitar
Debaixo da minha porta
Passou tempo e noutro baile
Tu sempre conquistador
Lá foste atrás de outro xaile
E arranjaste outro amor
Fiquei louca de ciúme
Porque sei que esta paixão
Não voltará a ser lume
Pra te aquecer o coração
Espero por ti
Como é sina de quem ama
Tu já não vens para casa
Mas eu vou cedo p'rá cama
P'ra me enganar
Que a esperança em mim já está morta
Eu deixo a chave a espreitar
Debaixo da minha porta
Eu deixo a chave a espreitar
Debaixo da minha porta
P'ra me enganar
Que a esperança em mim já está morta
Eu deixo a chave a espreitar
Debaixo da minha porta
The song "A chave da minha porta" by Amália Rodrigues tells the story of a love that began during the St. John festivities, when the singer met someone and fell in love, exchanging her heart for a manjerico (a small basil plant considered a symbol of luck and love). The couple's relationship started at a dance on the singer's street where they became a couple, and they would eagerly wait for each other: she would wait for him to come home late at night, leaving the key under her door, while he would arrive after spending time with others. However, time went by and the singer's lover became unfaithful, leading her to feel extremely jealous and possessive. Despite this, she still hopes that he will come back to her and continues to leave the key under her door, not wanting to give up on her love.
The lyrics of the song evoke a sense of longing, pain, and sadness, as the singer waits for her lover who has moved on to someone else. The theme of waiting and longing for someone who is no longer coming back is common in Fado, the traditional Portuguese music genre to which Amália Rodrigues is known for contributing significantly. The lyrics also express the sense of desperation that comes from holding onto a love that is lost, but one cannot quite let go of.
Line by Line Meaning
Eu vi-te pelo São João
I saw you at the Saint John's festival
Começou o namorico
Our flirting began
E dei-te o meu coração
And I gave you my heart
Em troca de um manjerico
In exchange for a basil plant
O nosso amor começou
Our love began
No baile da minha rua
At the dance in my street
Quando São Pedro chegou
When Saint Peter arrived
Tu eras meu e eu era tua
You were mine and I was yours
Esperava por ti
I waited for you
Como é de ver de quem ama
As is common for those who love
Tu vinhas tarde p'ra casa
You came home late
Eu ia cedo p'rá cama
I went to bed early
P'ra me enganar
To deceive myself
Que a esperança em mim estava morta
That hope in me was dead
Deixava a chave a espreitar
I left the key peeking
Debaixo da minha porta
Under my door
Passou tempo e noutro baile
Time passed and at another dance
Tu sempre conquistador
You, always the conqueror
Lá foste atrás de outro xaile
There you went after another woman
E arranjaste outro amor
And found another love
Fiquei louca de ciúme
I was crazy with jealousy
Porque sei que esta paixão
Because I know this passion
Não voltará a ser lume
Will never again be a flame
Pra te aquecer o coração
To warm your heart
Espero por ti
I wait for you
Como é sina de quem ama
As is the fate of those who love
Tu já não vens para casa
You no longer come home
Mas eu vou cedo p'rá cama
But I still go to bed early
P'ra me enganar
To deceive myself
Que a esperança em mim já está morta
That hope in me is already dead
Eu deixo a chave a espreitar
I leave the key peeking
Debaixo da minha porta
Under my door
P'ra me enganar
To deceive myself
Que a esperança em mim já está morta
That hope in me is already dead
Eu deixo a chave a espreitar
I leave the key peeking
Debaixo da minha porta
Under my door
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Walter Andrade
Amália,é única...a maior. !
URBS MACV Produções, Lda.
Belo fado este da Amália Rodrigues. Seria possível publicar o fado "Céu da Minha Rua" da mesma fadista?
Leonardo Dantas
Miguel Ângelo Catarino Vaquinhas ,obrigado por esta linda publicação.
Maria Angélica galiñanes
Amalia Rodríguez es única e irrepetible... Amo seus fados