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.
Campinos Do Ribatejo
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Um por-de-sol tão vermelho ao longe no horizonte
Porque é esse o seu destino, firme. o campino, o gado conduz
Então é que a gente vê como é belo até visto no contra-luz
Campinos do Ribatejo, gente feliz, gente sã!
Nem sabe como os invejo ao vê-los pela manhã!
Quem vem assim confiado junto do gado é que está crente
Visto de longe o campino, tem tal nobreza a sua figura,
Que há nele a mesma grandeza que existe numa escultura
Tem na mão firme o pampilho, se algum novilho se desmalhou
É varonil quando passa, é a própria raça que alguém modelou
The song "Campinos do Ribatejo" by Amália Rodrigues is a praise to the campinos, the cowboys of the Ribatejo region in Portugal. The lyrics encourage listeners to go to Vila Franca, a town known for its bullfighting tradition, and admire the sunset from the bridge. The campinos are then introduced as happy and healthy people who lead their cattle with determination and loyalty. The song praises their nobility and compares them to sculpted figures due to their dignified appearance. The campino is also described as being courageous and manly, someone who embodies the very essence of their heritage.
The song reflects the cultural identity of the Ribatejo region, where bullfighting and cattle-raising have been an important part of the local way of life for centuries. The lyrics celebrate the campinos as a symbol of a rural and authentic lifestyle that is often romanticized by urban dwellers. Amália Rodrigues's interpretation of the song adds to its emotional impact, as her powerful voice captures the pride and admiration that is felt towards the campinos.
Overall, "Campinos do Ribatejo" is a beautiful tribute to a traditional way of life that is slowly disappearing in modern Portugal. The song is a reminder of the cultural richness of the country and the importance of preserving its heritage.
Line by Line Meaning
Vão um dia a Vila Franca, é meu conselho, vejam da ponte
I recommend you go to Vila Franca one day and see the red sunset from the bridge
Um por-de-sol tão vermelho ao longe no horizonte
The distant horizon is painted a red sunset color
Porque é esse o seu destino, firme. o campino, o gado conduz
A campino's destiny is to firmly lead the cattle
Então é que a gente vê como é belo até visto no contra-luz
It's only then that we see how beautiful it is, even when viewed against the light
Campinos do Ribatejo, gente feliz, gente sã!
Campinos from Ribatejo are happy and healthy people!
Nem sabe como os invejo ao vê-los pela manhã!
I envy them when I see them in the morning!
Quem vem assim confiado junto do gado é que está crente
Those who come confidently with the cattle are faithful
Que esses bravos animais são mais leais que muita gente!
Believing that these brave animals are more loyal than many people!
Visto de longe o campino, tem tal nobreza a sua figura,
From afar, the campino's figure has such nobility
Que há nele a mesma grandeza que existe numa escultura
There's the same greatness in the campino as in a sculpture
Tem na mão firme o pampilho, se algum novilho se desmalhou
He holds the pampilho firmly, if any calf got out of line
É varonil quando passa, é a própria raça que alguém modelou
He's masculine as he passes by, and like a model for his own kind
Contributed by Ian J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Pecos V
AMALIA era una cantante excepcional...que interpretaba todos los generos...sencillamente maravillosa.!!!
Fernando Oliveira Vieira
Um dos bonitos fados Ribatejanos! Cantado pela imortal Amália fazendo juz ao meu Ribatejo
jlbcatala
O meu fado preferido !
Fonseca
Américo, teus vídeos sempre bons. Sincronia perfeita, canções intensas! Abraços do Brasil.
cibusana
Ai!!!Ah a nossa Amália!!!!!!!Adorei meu querido amigo!!!!!!!!!Lindo!!!!!!!!!!E que gravação lindíssima da Amália!!!!!Gratíssssssima!!!!!!!!!!
B Explore
Campinos do Ribatejo Gente feliz, gente sã Nem sabem como vos invejo ao vê-los pela manhã Quem vem assim confiado junto do gado é que está crente que esses bravos animais são mais leais que muita gente Grandes são as tradições portuguesas!!!
Aficionado35
Viva O Ribatejo e A Festa Brava!! Abraco a todos os ribatejanos e especialmente as populacao de SAmora e de Porto Alto
Norberto Pereira
Que voz clara e tão compreensiva . Bravo !
Manuel Santos Urbano
SEM FRONTEIRAS FADO NO GENERO FOLCLOR GRANDE SENHORA
Charles Oliveira
Amália foi e será sempre a nossa rainha do fado ,Deus que tenha aos seus pés, E que tu sempre cantes na alma da gente