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 esta Pena De Mim
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Ai, esta angústia sem fim
Ai, este meu coração
Ai, esta pena de mim
Ai, a minha solidão
Ai, minha infância dolorida
Ai, minha vida perdida
Ai, lucidez que me dói
Ai, esta grande ansiedade
Ai, este não ter sossego
Ai, passado sem saudade
Ai, minha falta de apego
Ai de mim, que vou vivendo
Ai, meu grande desespero
Ai, tudo que não entendo
Ai, o que entendo e não quero
The song "Ai, Esta Pena De Mim" is a mournful lament by Amália Rodrigues about the burdens and sorrows she has carried throughout her life. The lyrics express a deep sense of emptiness and despair that come from a lifetime of lost opportunities, unrequited love, and unfulfilled dreams. Amália's voice is filled with emotion and longing as she sings about her heartache, her painful childhood, and her unshakable loneliness.
The song begins with Amália expressing her overwhelming sense of grief and sorrow. She sings about the weight on her heart and soul, the burden of her loneliness, and her inability to find peace. The next verses focus on specific moments in her past that have contributed to her current state of mind. She reflects on her difficult childhood, the loss of her loved ones, and the missed opportunities that have left her feeling lost and alone. The final verse speaks to her sense of hopelessness and lack of understanding about the world around her.
Overall, "Ai, Esta Pena De Mim" is a powerful and poignant song that captures the deep feelings of despair and longing that many people can relate to. Amália's lyrics and voice express a sense of vulnerability and pain that resonate with listeners, even if they don't know the specifics of her experiences.
Line by Line Meaning
Ai, esta angústia sem fim
Oh, the never-ending torment and pain that I feel inside
Ai, este meu coração
Oh, this heart of mine that is filled with sorrow and despair
Ai, esta pena de mim
Oh, the burden and weight of my existence that I carry with me
Ai, a minha solidão
Oh, the crushing loneliness that I feel every moment of my life
Ai, minha infância dolorida
Oh, the painful memories of my childhood and the suffering that I endured
Ai, o meu bem que não foi
Oh, the love and happiness that I never experienced in my life
Ai, minha vida perdida
Oh, the feeling of being lost and without direction in my existence
Ai, lucidez que me dói
Oh, the painful awareness and clarity that I have about the harsh reality of my life
Ai, esta grande ansiedade
Oh, the overwhelming and all-consuming anxiety that grips me every day
Ai, este não ter sossego
Oh, the complete lack of peace and rest in my life
Ai, passado sem saudade
Oh, the memories of my past that do not bring me any happiness or nostalgia
Ai, minha falta de apego
Oh, the emptiness and lack of attachment that I feel towards anything or anyone
Ai de mim, que vou vivendo
Oh, poor me, who is just barely surviving each day
Ai, meu grande desespero
Oh, the immense despair and hopelessness that consumes me
Ai, tudo que não entendo
Oh, everything that I cannot comprehend or make sense of in my life
Ai, o que entendo e não quero
Oh, the things that I do understand about my life, but do not want to accept or face
Contributed by Anthony D. Suggest a correction in the comments below.