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.
Alma Minha
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Tão cedo desta vida descontente,
Repousa lá no Céu eternamente,
E viva eu cá na terra sempre triste.
Se lá no assento etéreo, onde subiste,
Memória desta vida se consente,
Não te esqueças daquele amor ardente
E se vires que pode merecer te
Algüa causa a dor que me ficou
Da mágoa, sem remédio, de perder te,
Roga a Deus, que teus anos encurtou,
Que tão cedo de cá me leve a ver te,
Quão cedo de meus olhos te levou.
The lyrics to Amália Rodrigues's song Alma Minha are a beautiful expression of love, longing, and grief. The singer is addressing their departed loved one, urging their soul to rest in eternal peace in heaven while they remain on earth, forever sad. The singer also asks their loved one not to forget about the intense love they shared and the pureness of it that was reflected in their eyes. The sorrow of losing their loved one is so great that the singer pleads with them to ask God to bring them back to each other soon, as they cannot bear the pain of being apart any longer.
The tone of the song is melancholic and mournful, with a sense of hopelessness and futility. The use of the word "gentil" to describe the departed loved one adds to the sense of loss and the idea that something beautiful and precious has been taken away. The repeated phrases "tão cedo" and "quão cedo" emphasize the suddenness and speed of the separation, and the desperation of the singer to be reunited with their loved one.
Overall, the lyrics to Alma Minha are a poignant expression of the depth of human emotion and the power of love. They remind us of the fragility of life and the importance of cherishing our loved ones while we have them.
Line by Line Meaning
Alma minha gentil, que te partiste
My precious soul, that departed so early from this unhappy life
Tão cedo desta vida descontente,
So quickly from this dissatisfied life
Repousa lá no Céu eternamente,
Rest forever in Heaven up above
E viva eu cá na terra sempre triste.
While I live on this earth, always maintaining a melancholic heart.
Se lá no assento etéreo, onde subiste,
If up there, in the ethereal dwelling, where you ascended,
Memória desta vida se consente,
You are allowed to remember this life,
Não te esqueças daquele amor ardente
Don't forget about that passionate love
Que já nos olhos meus tão puro viste.
That you saw so pure within my eyes.
E se vires que pode merecer te
And if you see that I might deserve the sorrow
Algüa causa a dor que me ficou
That remains with me, causing me pain
Da mágoa, sem remédio, de perder te,
Of the irreparable sorrow of losing you,
Roga a Deus, que teus anos encurtou,
Pray to God, who shortened your life
Que tão cedo de cá me leve a ver te,
That I may be taken from here to see you,
Quão cedo de meus olhos te levou.
As quickly as you were taken from my sight.
Contributed by Aria K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Fátima Nunes
Lindo! Só a sua voz maior e única, cantaria versos de Camões!!! Pudera ele saber, que que alguém daria voz ao que deixou, séculos depois! Intemporal a emoção, a saudade e orgulho eterno de Portugal!
Carmelia Branco
Que voz...que alma ....Amália serás sempre a ÚNICA 🌹🌹
rosa maria azera Vieira
Amália que linda voz talentósa não à nem haverá no mundo outra igual partiste mas continúas sempre connosco.🇵🇹
Giancarlo Belloni
In questo brano Amalia Eterna supera se stessa! Grande Immmensa Regina!❤
Alicia Diaz
Repousa lá no céu eternamente..... até um dia AMÁLIA.......
Carmelia Branco
Que lindo 😢 obrigada Amália 🌹🌹🌹🌹
Alicia Diaz
♥️ SEMPRE OBRIGADA AMÁLIA
Alicia Diaz
Ay.. Macarena.. caballo de oro domao y mejor atalajao ningun andaluz lo sueña ni traje mejor cortado que el que lucía su dueña..eres de oro.y plata..ay macarena.!!!para AMALIA este elogio.. 🌻❤️🇵🇹.. SEMPRE EM NOSSOS CORAÇÕES
Americo Magalhaes
Não há nem haverá igual.Saudades eternas.😂😂😂
Maria Glória Fraga Santos
Eterna e Maravilhosa voz dessa incrível fadista Amália Rodrigues.💖👏👏👏👏👏👏👏