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.
Ai Mouraria
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Da velha Rua da Palma
Onde eu um dia
Deixei presa a minha alma
Por ter passado
Mesmo a meu lado
Certo fadista
De cor morena
E olhar trocista
Ai mouraria
Do homem do meu encanto
Que me mentia
Mas que eu adorava tanto
Amor que o vento
Como um lamento
Levou consigo
Mais que ainda agora
A toda a hora
Trago comigo
Ai mouraria
Dos rouxinóis nos beirais
Dos vestidos cor-de-rosa
Dos pregões tradicionais
Ai mouraria
Das procissões a passar
Da Severa em voz saudosa
Da guitarra a soluçar
The song "Ai Mouraria" by Amália Rodrigues is a nostalgic tribute to the neighbourhood of Mouraria in Lisbon, Portugal. The singer recalls leaving a part of her soul there when she passed by a certain fado singer with a small mouth and mocking eyes. She also remembers a man who lied to her but whom she loved deeply and whose memory still haunts her. Mouraria is also remembered for its charming vistas, the nocturnal songs of the nightingales in the eaves, the bright pink dresses of the women selling their wares, and the traditional street vendors announcing their wares with cries. The neighbourhood is especially memorable for its Holy Week processions, the evocative vocalizations of the renowned fado singer Severa, and the exquisite sorrows of the sobbing guitar.
Line by Line Meaning
Da velha Rua da Palma,
From the old Palma Street,
Onde eu um dia
Where one day I
Deixei presa a minha alma,
Left my soul imprisoned,
Por ter passado
As a fado singer
Mesmo a meu lado
Passed by my side
Certo fadista
A certain fado singer
De cor morena,
With dark skin,
Boca pequena
Small mouth
E olhar trocista.
And mocking gaze.
Do homem do meu encanto
Of the man I was in love with
Que me mentia,
Who lied to me,
Mas que eu adorava tanto.
But whom I loved so much.
Amor que o vento,
Love that the wind
Como um lamento,
Like a lament,
Levou consigo,
Carried away with it
Mais que inda agora
More than even now
A toda a hora
At every moment
Trago comigo.
I carry with me.
Dos rouxinóis nos beirais,
Of the nightingales on the rooftops,
Dos vestidos cor-de-rosa,
Of the pink dresses,
Dos pregões tradicionais.
Of the traditional street vendors' cries.
Das procissões a passar,
Of the processions passing by,
Da Severa em voz saudosa,
Of Severa's nostalgic voice,
Da guitarra a soluçar.
Of the guitar's sobbing.
Lyrics © IRMAOS VITALE S/A INDUSTRIA E COMERCIO
Written by: Amadeu do Vale, Frederico Valério
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@sabrinagladio7875
Ai mouraria
Da velha Rua da Palma
Onde eu um dia
Deixei presa a minha alma
Por ter passado
Mesmo a meu lado
Certo fadista
De cor morena
Boca pequena
E olhar trocista
Ai mouraria
Do homem do meu encanto
Que me mentia
Mas que eu adorava tanto
Amor que o vento
Como um lamento
Levou consigo
Mais que ainda agora
A toda a hora
Trago comigo
Ai mouraria
Dos rouxinóis nos beirais
Dos vestidos cor-de-rosa
Dos pregões tradicionais
Ai mouraria
Das procissões a passar
Da Severa em voz saudosa
Da guitarra a soluçar
@hispanosueca
Aprendi português por causa dos fados abençoados da Amália Rodrigues (sou espanhola)
@paulohenriques.fernandes8743
Bela forma de aprender. Minha avó com 97 anos ainda canta essa música
@eduardodiasnunes941
@@paulohenriques.fernandes8743 Bem feito! Devia ter vindo para o Nordeste do Brasil! KKKKK
Um fraterno abraço!
@severinosilva9056
Lembra meu pai, filho de português, nascido em instância Bom jesus, em 1872 , meu avô. Linda música muitas vezes cantada e chorada por meu pai.
@skandarcorrea
Já ouvi tantas mil vezes que nem sei dizer quantas. Vou começar novamente, mas desta vez vou contar. Abraços cariocas!
@carlosribeiro2051
Que voz linda, incrível! Sou brasileiro e amo Portugal
@ivanpradosantos5465
Ouvir Amália Rodrigues cantar é um bálsamo para a nossa vida.
@Priska08
Que voz impecável. Linda demais. A melhor voz feminina de todos os tempos.
@vincentmartins412
Grande amalia
@jeanaraujo2739
Adoro o fado português amo Portugal mas nunca fui lá, o fado me toca na alma.