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.
Amor de mel amor de fel
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Mas posso chorar amor pecado, amor de amor
Amor de mel, amor de flor
Amor de fel, amor maior amor amado
Tenho um amor amor de dor, amor maior
Amor chorado em tom menor
Em tom menor, maior o Fado choro a chorar
Não posso deixar de amar
O meu amor em pecado
Foi andorinha que chegou na Primavera
Eu era quem era amor pecado, amor de amor
Amor de mel, amor de flor
Amor de fel, amor maior amor amado
Tenho um amor amor de dor, amor maior
Amor chorado em tom menor
Em tom menor, maior o Fado choro a chorar
Tornando maior o mar
Não posso deixar de amar
O meu amor em pecado
Fado maior cantado em tom de menor
Chorando o amor de dor
Dor de um bem e mal amado
The lyrics of Amália Rodrigues's song "Amor de mel amor de fel" touch upon the theme of forbidden love and the complex emotions that come with it. The singer expresses having a love that they cannot confess openly, leading to a bittersweet experience filled with both joy and pain. The love is compared to honey and flowers, representing sweetness and beauty, but also to bitterness, portraying the conflicting emotions that arise from this forbidden affection.
The lyrics also mention the presence of sorrow and the Fado, a traditional Portuguese music genre known for its melancholic and expressive nature. The singer emphasizes the depth of their love, acknowledging the pain and tears that accompany it. Despite the knowledge that their love is sinful, the singer cannot help but continue to love in secrecy.
Overall, the song delves into the complexities of forbidden love, highlighting the inner turmoil and conflicting emotions experienced by the singer.
Line by Line Meaning
Tenho um amor que não posso confessar
I have a love that I cannot confess
Mas posso chorar amor pecado, amor de amor
But I can cry for forbidden love, love of love
Amor de mel, amor de flor
Love of honey, love of flower
Amor de fel, amor maior amor amado
Love of bitterness, greater love, beloved love
Tenho um amor amor de dor, amor maior
I have a love, a love of pain, a greater love
Amor chorado em tom menor
Love cried in a minor tone
Em tom menor, maior o Fado choro a chorar
In a minor tone, the Fado grows with my crying
Tornando maior o mar
Making the sea bigger
Não posso deixar de amar
I cannot stop loving
O meu amor em pecado
My love in sin
Foi andorinha que chegou na Primavera
It was a swallow that arrived in the Spring
Eu era quem era amor pecado, amor de amor
I was who I was, a love of sin, a love of love
Fado maior cantado em tom de menor
Major Fado sung in a minor tone
Chorando o amor de dor
Crying for the love of pain
Dor de um bem e mal amado
Pain of a well-loved and ill-loved person
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Carlos Maza
Tengo un amor
Que no puedo confesar...
Pero puedo llorar
Amor pecado, amor de amor,
Amor de miel, amor de flor,
Amor de hiel, amor mayor,
¡Amor amado!
Tengo un amor
Amor de dolor, amor mayor,
Amor llorado en tono menor
En tono menor, ¡mayor el fado!
Lloro llorando
Haciendo mayor el mar
No puedo dejar de amar
¡Mi amor en pecado!
Fui golondrina
Que llegó en la primavera,
¡Yo era quien era!
Amor pecado, amor de amor,
Amor de miel, amor de flor,
Amor de hiel, amor mayor,
¡Amor amado!
Tengo un amor
Amor de dolor, amor mayor,
Amor llorado en tono menor
En tono menor, ¡mayor el fado!
Lloro llorando
Haciendo mayor el mar
No puedo dejar de amar
¡Mi amor en pecado!
Fado mayor
Cantado en tono menor
Llorando amor de dolor
¡Dolor de un bien y mal amado!
Vitor Haase
Tenho um amor que não posso confessar
Mas posso chorar
Amor pecado, amor de amor
Amor de mel, amor de flor
Amor de fel, amor maior, amor amado
Tenho um amor, amor de dor, amor maior
Amor chorado em tom menor
Em tom menor maior o fado
Choro a chorar tornando maior o mar
Não posso deixar de amar o meu amor em pecado
Fui andorinha que chegou na primavera
Eu era quem era
Amor pecado, amor de amor
Amor de mel, amor de flor
Amor de fel, amor maior, amor amado
Tenho um amor, amor de dor, amor maior
Amor chorado em tom menor
Em tom menor maior o fado
Choro a chorar tornando maior o mar
Não posso deixar de amar o meu amor em pecado
Fado maior, cantado em tom de menor
Chorando um amor de dor
Dor de um bem e mal amado
José Kalil Salles
Amália: ícone de Portugal, ícone do fado. Amália sempre. Amália eterna. Amália canta com o coração e transborda emoção. É o supremo talento. É a pura arte.
Leonor Viegas
A Voz que não tem quem a substitua ..
Voz Única..
Joana Jacinto
Amália Rodrigues foi única
Lucia Couto
A nossa Rainha do fado descanse em Paz
Carlos Maza
Tengo un amor
Que no puedo confesar...
Pero puedo llorar
Amor pecado, amor de amor,
Amor de miel, amor de flor,
Amor de hiel, amor mayor,
¡Amor amado!
Tengo un amor
Amor de dolor, amor mayor,
Amor llorado en tono menor
En tono menor, ¡mayor el fado!
Lloro llorando
Haciendo mayor el mar
No puedo dejar de amar
¡Mi amor en pecado!
Fui golondrina
Que llegó en la primavera,
¡Yo era quien era!
Amor pecado, amor de amor,
Amor de miel, amor de flor,
Amor de hiel, amor mayor,
¡Amor amado!
Tengo un amor
Amor de dolor, amor mayor,
Amor llorado en tono menor
En tono menor, ¡mayor el fado!
Lloro llorando
Haciendo mayor el mar
No puedo dejar de amar
¡Mi amor en pecado!
Fado mayor
Cantado en tono menor
Llorando amor de dolor
¡Dolor de un bien y mal amado!
pablo silva
Muito bem feito
Muy bien hecho
De un amante del fado al otro.
Mariana Gordo
A Maior ........Paz a sua Alma
Daniela Farinha
Não, está voz é a mais divinal do fado, eu aprendi a cantar Amália na rádio, por isso Amália é imortal e não posso encontrar o fado, cantado sem sentido , com pausas e contratempos indefenidos, que ouviu Amália Rodrigues nunca poderá achar algum dado que ela imortalizou bem cantado, Amália foi e ainda é a DEUSA MAIOR DE PORTUGAL NA SUA VOZ SUBLIME E DIVINAL💖😇😘
Vitor Haase
Tenho um amor que não posso confessar
Mas posso chorar
Amor pecado, amor de amor
Amor de mel, amor de flor
Amor de fel, amor maior, amor amado
Tenho um amor, amor de dor, amor maior
Amor chorado em tom menor
Em tom menor maior o fado
Choro a chorar tornando maior o mar
Não posso deixar de amar o meu amor em pecado
Fui andorinha que chegou na primavera
Eu era quem era
Amor pecado, amor de amor
Amor de mel, amor de flor
Amor de fel, amor maior, amor amado
Tenho um amor, amor de dor, amor maior
Amor chorado em tom menor
Em tom menor maior o fado
Choro a chorar tornando maior o mar
Não posso deixar de amar o meu amor em pecado
Fado maior, cantado em tom de menor
Chorando um amor de dor
Dor de um bem e mal amado
Amalia Navarro
Amália sempre Amália ...........