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.
Barco Negro
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Acordei, tremendo, deitada n'areia
Mas logo os teus olhos disseram que não
E o sol penetrou no meu coração
Mas logo os teus olhos disseram que não
E o sol penetrou no meu coração
E o teu barco negro dançava na luz
Vi teu braço acenando, entre as velas já soltas
Dizem as velhas da praia, que não voltas
São louca
São loucas
Eu sei, meu amor
Que nem chegaste a partir
Pois tudo, em meu redor
Me diz qu'estás sempre comigo
Eu sei, meu amor
Que nem chegaste a partir
Pois tudo, em meu redor
Me diz qu'estás sempre comigo
No vento que lança areia nos vidros
Na água que canta, no fogo mortiço
No calor do leito, nos bancos vazios
Dentro do meu peito, estás sempre comigo
No calor do leito, nos bancos vazios
Dentro do meu peito, estás sempre comigo
Ah ah ah
Eu sei, meu amor
Que nem chegaste a partir
Pois tudo, em meu redor
Me diz qu'estás sempre comigo
Eu sei, meu amor
Que nem chegaste a partir
Pois tudo, em meu redor
Me diz qu'estás sempre
Comigo
The lyrics of Barco negro by Amália Rodrigues describe the fear of a woman waking up on the beach and worrying that her lover might find her unattractive. Yet when he comes along, his eyes confirm her beauty and she feels the warmth of the sun in her heart. However, the scene changes and the woman sees a cross on a rock and notices her lover's black boat dancing in the light. She sees his arm waving and hears the older women on the beach say that he will never return. The woman feels that he is with her all the time, even in the wind that blows sand against the windows, in the water that sings, in the dim fire, in her empty bed, and in her heart.
The lyrics contain powerful imagery and symbolism. The fear of waking up and not being beautiful enough reflects the insecurities that many women still feel today. The mention of the cross and the black boat suggest that the lover may have died or disappeared, leaving the woman to cope with the pain of loss. The older women on the beach represent the wisdom that comes with experience, and their comment that he will never return is a reminder of the fleeting nature of love and the inevitability of moving on. The woman's feeling that her lover is with her all the time reinforces the idea that love transcends time and space.
Line by Line Meaning
De manhã, que medo, que me achasses feia!
In the morning, I was afraid you would find me ugly!
Acordei, tremendo, deitada n'areia
I woke up, trembling, lying on the sand
Mas logo os teus olhos disseram que não
But then your eyes said no
E o sol penetrou no meu coração
And the sun penetrated my heart
Vi depois, numa rocha, uma cruz
Later, I saw a cross on a rock
E o teu barco negro dançava na luz
And your black boat danced in the light
Vi teu braço acenando, entre as velas já soltas
I saw your arm waving, among the sails already loose
Dizem as velhas da praia, que não voltas
The old women on the beach say you won't be back
São louca
They're crazy
São loucas
They're crazy
Eu sei, meu amor
I know, my love
Que nem chegaste a partir
That you never really left
Pois tudo, em meu redor
Because everything around me
Me diz qu'estás sempre comigo
Tells me that you are always with me
No vento que lança areia nos vidros
In the wind that blows sand against the windows
Na água que canta, no fogo mortiço
In the water that sings, in the dying fire
No calor do leito, nos bancos vazios
In the warmth of the bed, on the empty benches
Dentro do meu peito, estás sempre comigo
Inside my chest, you are always with me
Ah ah ah
Ah ah ah
Eu sei, meu amor
I know, my love
Que nem chegaste a partir
That you never really left
Pois tudo, em meu redor
Because everything around me
Me diz qu'estás sempre comigo
Tells me that you are always with me
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA/AMCOS
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