Amália da Piedade Rebordão Rodrigues (1920–1999) was a Portuguese singer an… Read Full Bio ↴Amália da Piedade Rebordão Rodrigues (1920–1999) was a Portuguese singer and actress.

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.

Amalia
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Amália, quis Deus que fosse o meu nome
Amáliam, acho-lhe um jeito engraçado
Bem nosso e popular
Quando oiço alguém gritar
Amália, canta-me o fado

Amália, esta palavra ensinou-me
Amália, tu tens na vida que amar

São ordens do Senhor
Amália sem amor
Não liga, tens de gostar
E como até morrer
Amar é padecer
Amália chora a cantar!

Amália, disse-me alguém com ternura
Amália, da mais bonita maneira
E eu toda coração
Julguei ouvir então
Amália p'la vez primeira

Amália, andas agora à procura
Amália, daquele amor mas sem fé
Alguém já mo tirou
Alguém o encontrou
Na rua com a outra ao pé
E a quem lhe fala em mim

Já só responde assim
Amália? não sei quem é!

Overall Meaning

The song "Amalia" by Amalia Rodrigues is a melancholic ode to the singer's own name and to the universal plight of love and loss. The first verse establishes the theme of the song, with Amalia acknowledging that her name is unique and recognizable, and when people call her by it, they often ask her to sing a fado (a traditional Portuguese music genre that Amalia is famous for). In the second verse, the lyrics suggest that love is essential to human existence, and without it, life is empty and meaningless. The refrain "Amalia chora a cantar" (Amalia cries while singing) reinforces this theme, portraying Amalia as a tragic figure who pours her heart and soul into her music.

The third verse takes a more personal turn, with someone addressing Amalia with affection and calling her name in a beautiful way. Amalia is touched by this gesture and thinks she hears her name for the first time, suggesting that she derives her self-worth from the recognition and admiration of others. The final verse brings the song full circle, by describing a situation where Amalia is seeking love but is heartbroken because someone has taken it away. The person who took her love responds dismissively when Amalia's name is mentioned, as if she is no longer significant or important. The song ends on a poignant note, with Amalia's voice echoing into the void.

Line by Line Meaning

Amália, quis Deus que fosse o meu nome
I was given the name Amália by God

Amália, acho-lhe um jeito engraçado
I find the name Amália amusing and endearing

Bem nosso e popular
It is both familiar and common

Quando oiço alguém gritar
When I hear someone call out

Amália, canta-me o fado
They want me to sing fado

Amália, esta palavra ensinou-me
This name taught me

Amália, tu tens na vida que amar
I must love in life

São ordens do Senhor
It is God's command

Amália sem amor
Without love, Amália

Não liga, tens de gostar
It doesn't matter, you have to like it

E como até morrer
And until death

Amar é padecer
To love is to suffer

Amália chora a cantar!
Amália cries while singing!

Amália, disse-me alguém com ternura
Someone said to me tenderly

Amália, da mais bonita maneira
Amália, in the most beautiful way

E eu toda coração
And with my whole heart

Julguei ouvir então
I thought I heard

Amália p'la vez primeira
Amália for the first time

Amália, andas agora à procura
Amália, are you now searching

Amália, daquele amor mas sem fé
For that love without faith

Alguém já mo tirou
Someone has already taken it away from me

Alguém o encontrou
Someone else found it

Na rua com a outra ao pé
On the street with the other one next to them

E a quem lhe fala em mim
And to anyone who talks about me to them

Já só responde assim
They only respond like this now

Amália? não sei quem é!
Amália? I don't know who that is!

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: RUBEN CALZADO GONZALEZ, GLEN POWELL, FREDERICO VALERIO

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

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