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.
Cansaco
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
De olhos fixados no meus?
Alguém que passou por cá
E seguiu ao Deus dará
Deixando os olhos nos meus.
Quem dorme na minha cama
E tenta sonhar meus sonhos?
E lá de longe me chama
Misturado nos meus sonhos.
Tudo o que faço ou não faço
Outros fizeram assim
Daí este meu cansaço
De sentir que quanto faço
Não é feito só por mim.
The song "Cansaço" by Amália Rodrigues depicts a sense of weariness and fatigue in the singer's life. The opening lines "Por trás do espelho quem está" (Who is behind the mirror), show a feeling of being watched or followed, with somebody leaving their eyes fixed on the singer. The sense of isolation and discomfort continues with "Alguém que passou por cá/E seguiu ao Deus dará/Deixando os olhos nos meus" (Someone who passed by / And left their eyes on me).
The second verse "Quem dorme na minha cama/E tenta sonhar meus sonhos" (Who sleeps in my bed / And tries to dream my dreams) speaks of loss and longing. It suggests that someone who died in the singer's bed is haunting her, calling her from afar and mingling with her dreams. This creates a sense of unease, with the singer unsure of who she is, how to connect with others, and feeling like she cannot escape from her past.
The final lines, "Tudo o que faço ou não faço/Outros fizeram assim/Daí este meu cansaço/De sentir que quanto faço/Não é feito só por mim" (Everything I do or don't do / Others have done it this way / Hence my tiredness / Of feeling like what I do/Is not done solely by me), show the singer's weariness with the world. She is tired of feeling like everything she does is not unique and is already done by others. It suggests a sense of dissatisfaction with her life and her place in the world.
Line by Line Meaning
Por trás do espelho quem está
Who stands behind the mirror, staring into my eyes?
Alguém que passou por cá
Someone who once was here.
E seguiu ao Deus dará
And left everything to chance.
Deixando os olhos nos meus.
Leaving their eyes fixed on mine.
Quem dorme na minha cama
Who sleeps in my bed?
E tenta sonhar meus sonhos?
And tries to dream my dreams?
Alguém morreu nesta cama
Someone died in this bed.
E lá de longe me chama
And from afar calls out to me.
Misturado nos meus sonhos.
Mixed up in my dreams.
Tudo o que faço ou não faço
Everything I do or don't do.
Outros fizeram assim
Others have done the same.
Daí este meu cansaço
Hence this weariness of mine.
De sentir que quanto faço
Of feeling that what I do.
Não é feito só por mim.
Is not done solely by me.
Contributed by Sydney E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@miguelcosta5969
Here are the lyrics:
Behind the mirror, who is it
His gaze fixed on mine?
Someone who has been here
And now is gone, God knows where to
Leaving his gaze on mine
Who sleeps in my bed
and tries to dream my dreams?
Someone has died in this bed
and from up there is calling for me
blended in my dreams
Whatever I do or not,
others did the very same
Hence my weariness of
Feeling that no matter how much I do
it's not done just by me
@miguelcosta5969
Here are the lyrics:
Behind the mirror, who is it
His gaze fixed on mine?
Someone who has been here
And now is gone, God knows where to
Leaving his gaze on mine
Who sleeps in my bed
and tries to dream my dreams?
Someone has died in this bed
and from up there is calling for me
blended in my dreams
Whatever I do or not,
others did the very same
Hence my weariness of
Feeling that no matter how much I do
it's not done just by me
@miguelcosta5969
Here are the lyrics:
Behind the mirror, who is it
His gaze fixed on mine?
Someone who has been here
And now is gone, God knows where to
Leaving his gaze on mine
Who sleeps in my bed
and tries to dream my dreams?
Someone has died in this bed
and from up there is calling for me
blended in my dreams
Whatever I do or not,
others did the very same
Hence my weariness of
Feeling that no matter how much I do
it's not done just by me
@miguelcosta5969
Here are the lyrics:
Behind the mirror, who is it
His gaze fixed on mine?
Someone who has been here
And now is gone, God knows where to
Leaving his gaze on mine
Who sleeps in my bed
and tries to dream my dreams?
Someone has died in this bed
and from up there is calling for me
blended in my dreams
Whatever I do or not,
others did the very same
Hence my weariness of
Feeling that no matter how much I do
it's not done just by me
@amaliasilva5003
Por trás do espelho quem está
De olhos fixados no meus?
Alguém que passou por cá
E seguiu ao Deus dará
Deixando os olhos nos meus.
Quem dorme na minha cama
E tenta sonhar meus sonhos?
Alguém morreu nesta cama
E lá de longe me chama
Misturado nos meus sonhos.
Tudo o que faço ou não faço
Outros fizeram assim
Daí este meu cansaço
De sentir que quanto faço
Não é feito só por mim.
@miguelcosta5969
Here are the lyrics:
Behind the mirror, who is it
His gaze fixed on mine?
Someone who has been here
And now is gone, God knows where to
Leaving his gaze on mine
Who sleeps in my bed
and tries to dream my dreams?
Someone has died in this bed
and from up there is calling for me
blended in my dreams
Whatever I do or not,
others did the very same
Hence my weariness of
Feeling that no matter how much I do
it's not done just by me
@cleidevionet8188
Cansaço
Luís Macedo / Joaquim Campos
fado tango
Por trás do espelho quem está
De olhos fixados no meus?
Alguém que passou por cá
E seguiu ao Deus dará
Deixando os olhos nos meus.
Quem dorme na minha cama
E tenta sonhar meus sonhos?
Alguém morreu nesta cama
E lá de longe me chama
Misturado nos meus sonhos.
Tudo o que faço ou não faço
Outros fizeram assim
Daí este meu cansaço
De sentir que quanto faço
Não é feito só por mim.
@Samanthracis
Por trás do espelho quem está
D'olhos fixados no meus?
Por trás do espelho quem está
D'olhos fixados no meus?
Alguém que passou por cá
E seguiu ao Deus dará
Deixando os olhos nos meus
Alguém que passou por cá
E seguiu ao Deus dará
Deixando os olhos nos meus
Quem dorme na minha cama
E tenta sonhar meus sonhos?
Quem dorme na minha cama
E tenta sonhar meus sonhos?
Alguém morreu nesta cama
E lá de longe me chama
Misturado nos meus sonhos
Alguém morreu nesta cama
E lá de longe me chama
Misturado nos meus sonhos
Tudo o que faço ou não faço
Outros fizeram assim
Tudo o que faço ou não faço
Outros fizeram assim
Daí este meu cansaço
De sentir que quanto faço
Não é feito só por mim
Daí este meu cansaço
De sentir que quanto faço
Não é feito só por mim
@robertcircleone
Eu encontrei Amália por puro acaso. Eu moro no Reino Unido e a estação de rádio tocando uma música de Amália era tão fraca que foi apenas a clareza de sua voz que me fez querer saber quem era. Eu escutava noite após noite para pegar o som fraco de novo e acabava sendo recompensado. Eu gravei o rádio e gravei a fita para um amigo italiano que me disse ser português. Mais tarde, descobri que era uma cantora chamada Amalia. Cantora maravilhosa. Eu sou inglês e não entendo as palavras, mas entendo o sentimento.
Forgiver the Google translation.
Original: I found Amalia by pure chance. I live in the UK and the radio station playing an Amalia song was so faint that it was only the clarity of her voice that made me want to know who this was. I listened night after night to catch the faint sound again and was eventually rewarded. I taped the radio and played the tape to an Italian friend who told me it was Portuguese. I later found out it was a singer called Amalia. Marvelous singer. I am English and do not understand the words but I understand the feeling.
@miguelcosta5969
Here are the lyrics:
Behind the mirror, who is it
His gaze fixed on mine?
Someone who has been here
And now is gone, God knows where to
Leaving his gaze on mine
Who sleeps in my bed
and tries to dream my dreams?
Someone has died in this bed
and from up there is calling for me
blended in my dreams
Whatever I do or not,
others did the very same
Hence my weariness of
Feeling that no matter how much I do
it's not done just by me
@mariajosedomingues7163
@@miguelcosta5969 obrigada!
@paulopereira6516
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKVhW51GXzk
@paulopereira6516
arrangement of the great pianist Julio Resende with a unique voice of Amália
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En7gHOAjGvI
@cicloviArgy
@@miguelcosta5969 eu falo português do Brasil e as vezes nem eu entendo o que ela está dizendo..mas atraves da letra que você publicou eu consegui acompanhar e ainda treinei meu inglês 😁👍🏾 gracias
@paulocesargoncalves5145
A Amália é um milagre. Não é possível alguém cantar assim.
@MrRuissimo
I had the distinct pleasure of meeting this iconic woman in person, in the United States. By far the greatest voice I have ever heard; probably the greatest voice I'll ever hear. Rest in Peace, AMALIA.
@miguelcosta5969
Here are the lyrics:
Behind the mirror, who is it
His gaze fixed on mine?
Someone who has been here
And now is gone, God knows where to
Leaving his gaze on mine
Who sleeps in my bed
and tries to dream my dreams?
Someone has died in this bed
and from up there is calling for me
blended in my dreams
Whatever I do or not,
others did the very same
Hence my weariness of
Feeling that no matter how much I do
it's not done just by me
@rubenximenes3300
Um dos mais belos fados de Amália!! Que honra que prazer ouvir a língua portuguesa na sua VOZ!