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.
Céu da minha rua
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Céu Da Minha Rua Lyrics
No céu da minha rua
Da Alfama não chama,
Nem prende as intenções.
Às vezes nem a lua
Lá chegue em seus clarões
Mutilados a telhados
Que se abraçam fraternais
E o céu da minha rua
A lua, recua
Limita-se aos beirais
Com Alfama céu não rima
Porque sempre o céu é pouco
Quando olhamos lá pra cima.
Mas o céu não nega o troco
Cá embaixo a quem se estima
Vai daí ser voz corrente
Que na Alfama toda a gente
Traz o céu no coração
É feliz por natureza
Ninguém pede mais riqueza
Que saúde, amor e pão!
In "Céu da Minha Rua", Amalia Rodrigues sings about the sky in her neighborhood, Alfama, in Lisbon. She observes that unlike other places, the sky in Alfama is not imposing, and does not seize the attention of the residents. The moon even seems reluctant to stay there, and often can only be seen from the rooftops. The houses in Alfama are closely knitted, with their rooves touching each other, and as a result, limiting the access of the sky to the residents. Rodrigues then goes ahead to explain that in Alfama, sky and word play doesn't quite work because the sky is always not enough when looked at from above. However, the people in Alfama do not feel deprived because they carry the sky in their hearts, and they are content with the simple joys of life.
The song "Céu Da Minha Rua" captures the essence of Alfama, which is characterized by closely knitted houses, winding streets, and a deeply rooted sense of community. The song highlights the fact that the people in Alfama may not have material abundance, but they are happy because they find joy in the simple things in life, such as love, health, and food. The lyrics are poignant and evocative, painting a vivid picture of the neighborhood, its people, and the sky above.
Line by Line Meaning
No céu da minha rua
The sky on my street
Da Alfama não chama,
Doesn't call from Alfama
Nem prende as intenções.
Nor does it imprison intentions
Às vezes nem a lua
Sometimes not even the moon
Lá mora, embora
Lives there, though
Lá chegue em seus clarões
It appears in its brightness
Mutilados a telhados
Mutilated by rooftops
Que se abraçam fraternais
That embrace fraternally
E o céu da minha rua
And the sky on my street
A lua, recua
Retreats, the moon
Limita-se aos beirais
Limits itself to the eaves
Com Alfama céu não rima
Alfama doesn't rhyme with the sky
Porque sempre o céu é pouco
Because the sky is always not enough
Quando olhamos lá pra cima.
When we look up there.
Mas o céu não nega o troco
But the sky doesn't deny the return
Cá embaixo a quem se estima
Down here, to those who are valued
Vai daí ser voz corrente
That's why it's common saying
Que na Alfama toda a gente
That in Alfama everybody
Traz o céu no coração
Carries the sky in their heart
É feliz por natureza
Is naturally happy
Ninguém pede mais riqueza
No one asks for more wealth
Que saúde, amor e pão!
Than health, love, and bread!
Contributed by Grayson K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.