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.
Amêndoa Amarga
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Mas eu digo minha amêndoa, meu amigo, meu irmão,
Meu tropel de ternura, minha casa,
Meu jardim de carência, minha asa.
Por ti vivo e ninguém pensa,
Mas eu sigo em caminho de silvas e de nardos,
Uma intensa ternura que persigo
Por ti morro e ninguém sabe,
Mas eu espero o teu corpo que sabe a madrugada,
O teu corpo que sabe a desespero
É minha amarga amêndoa desejada.
The lyrics to Amália Rodrigues's song "Amêndoa Amarga" express a deep sense of devotion and longing. The singer is addressing someone who they refer to as their "amêndoa" (almond), which is a term of endearment typically used to refer to a loved one. Despite the fact that no one else seems to understand the depth of their feelings, the singer makes it clear that this person is everything to them: a friend, a sibling, a source of tenderness and comfort, a home, a garden, and a wing.
The singer goes on to say that they live and breathe for this person, even though no one else seems to realize it. They are willing to follow an uncertain path full of thorns and obstacles, seeking out the intense tenderness that they crave. The mention of cardos (thistles) suggests that this path is not an easy one, but the singer is determined to pursue it nonetheless. Finally, the singer confesses that they are willing to die for this person, but no one knows the depth of their feelings. The object of their desire is described as possessing the qualities of both dawn and despair, which suggests that they might be both a source of new beginnings and of pain.
Overall, "Amêndoa Amarga" is a powerful expression of unrequited love and devotion. The singer is willing to give everything for this person, even though their feelings are not acknowledged or reciprocated.
Line by Line Meaning
Por ti falo e ninguém pensa,
I speak about you, but no one understands the depth of my words.
Mas eu digo minha amêndoa, meu amigo, meu irmão,
My almond, my friend, my brother, that's how I refer to you.
Meu tropel de ternura, minha casa,
You are the stampede of tenderness, my home.
Meu jardim de carência, minha asa.
You are my garden of need, my wing.
Por ti vivo e ninguém pensa,
I live for you, but no one understands the extent of my devotion.
Mas eu sigo em caminho de silvas e de nardos,
I walk a thorny path, surrounded by sweet-smelling flowers.
Uma intensa ternura que persigo
I am pursuing an intense tenderness.
Rodeada de cardos por tantos lados.
But I am constantly surrounded by thorns on all sides.
Por ti morro e ninguém sabe,
I would die for you, but no one knows the sacrifice I make.
Mas eu espero o teu corpo que sabe a madrugada,
I long for your body, which carries the scent of dawn.
O teu corpo que sabe a desespero
Your body carries the taste of despair.
É minha amarga amêndoa desejada.
Still, you are my desired bitter almond.
Contributed by Owen G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Robert De Oliveira
Este disco é uma obra prima aboluta do fado tanto pelas letras ,pela musica do Oulman e a voz sem par da nossa Amalia que orgulho receber este patrimonio
Bruno Albuquerque
"Por ti morro e ninguém sabe,
Mas eu espero o teu corpo que sabe à madrugada,
O teu corpo que sabe ao desespero,
Oh minha amarga amêndoa desejada!
Ai, minha amarga amêndoa desejada!"
Aygo84
Esta versão também é bonita. Mas a do Cantigas Numa Língua Antiga é magistral, ainda melhor que esta.
José Carlos Gomes
Nossa Senhora ! Como é linda esta música ❤️
Elisa Vieira
Unica xxx
Manuel Da Silva Marques
Ñp0amali