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.
Caracóis
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Ai, janelas avarandadas
Mora aqui algum doutor
Ai, mora aqui algum doutor
Ai, eu venho me aconselhar
Ai, eu venho me aconselhar
Ai, ando mal com o meu amor
Ai, ando mal com o meu amor
São caracóis, são caracolitos
São espanhóis, são os espanholitos
São os espanholitos, são os espanhóis
São caracolitos, são os caracóis
São caracóis, são caracolitos
São espanhóis, são os espanholitos
São os espanholitos, são os espanhóis
São caracolitos, são os caracóis
Ai, um dia fui a Espanha
Ai, um dia fui a Espanha
Comi lá com os espanhóis
Comi lá com os espanhóis
Toucinho assado no espeto
Toucinho assado no espeto
No molho dos caracóis no molho dos caracóis
São caracóis, são caracolitos
São espanhóis, são os espanholitos
São os espanholitos, são os espanhóis
São caracolitos, são os caracóis
São caracóis, são caracolitos
São espanhóis, são os espanholitos
São os espanholitos, são os espanhóis
São caracolitos, são os caracóis
The lyrics of Amália Rodrigues's song "Caracóis" depict a scene where the singer seeks advice regarding their troubled love life. The opening lines of the song talk about the balconied windows of a house where a doctor resides, indicating that the singer is visiting this place in the hopes of finding solace and guidance. The repetition of the lines "Ai, janelas avarandadas" and "Ai, mora aqui algum doutor" emphasizes the singer's desperation and longing for answers.
The chorus of the song introduces the theme of "caracóis," which translates to snails. The lyrics play with the double meaning of "caracóis" as both snails and a term used to describe curly hair. The lines "São caracóis, são caracolitos / São espanhóis, são os espanholitos" suggest a playful comparison between the characteristics of snails and the Spanish people, possibly as a metaphor for the singer's perplexing love situation. The repetition of these lines further reinforces the connection between the two.
In the second stanza, the singer recalls a trip to Spain, where they had a meal with the Spanish people. The mention of "toucinho assado no espeto," which means roasted bacon on a skewer, implies a moment of indulging in the company of the Spanish. The reference to "molho dos caracóis," the sauce of the snails, further integrates the theme of "caracóis" into the narrative.
Overall, "Caracóis" is a poetic exploration of love troubles and a clever blending of imagery surrounding snails and the Spanish culture.
Line by Line Meaning
Ai, janelas avarandadas
Oh, the open balcony windows
Mora aqui algum doutor
Does a doctor live here?
Ai, eu venho me aconselhar
Oh, I come to seek advice
Ai, ando mal com o meu amor
Oh, I'm having trouble with my love
São caracóis, são caracolitos
They are snails, little snails
São espanhóis, são os espanholitos
They are Spaniards, little Spaniards
São os espanholitos, são os espanhóis
They are the little Spaniards, they are the Spaniards
São caracolitos, são os caracóis
They are little snails, they are the snails
Ai, um dia fui a Espanha
Oh, one day I went to Spain
Comi lá com os espanhóis
I ate there with the Spaniards
Toucinho assado no espeto
Roasted bacon on a spit
No molho dos caracóis no molho dos caracóis
In the sauce of the snails, in the sauce of the snails
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
rapmaster
Oh, bay windows
Oh, tinny windows
Some doctor lives here
Oh, some doctor lives here
Oh, I come to take my advice
Oh, I've come to take my advice
Oh, I'm in a bad way with my love
Oh, I'm in a bad way with my love
[Chorus]
They're snails, they're snailitos
They're Spanish, they're Spanishitos
It's the Spanishitos, it's the Spanishitos
It's snails, it's snails
They're snails, they're snailitos
It's Spaniards, it's Spaniards
It's the Spaniards, it's the Spaniards
They're snailitos, they're snails
[Stanza 2]
Oh, one day I went to Spain
Oh, one day I went to Spain
I ate there with the Spaniards
I ate there with the Spaniards
Bacon roasted on a spit
I've been to Spain for a long time
In the snail sauce
In the snail sauce
[Refrain]
They're snails, they're snailitos
They're Spanish, they're Spanishitos
It's the Spaniards, it's the Spaniards
They're snails, they're snails
They're snails, they're snailitos
It's Spaniards, it's Spaniards
It's the Spaniards, it's the Spaniards
It's snailitos, it's the snails
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Claudio Leonardo Garcés
Bellísimo escuchar a la voz de Portugal. Saludos desde Buenos Aires Argentina.
javier costa
Hermosa voz, hermosa mujer!! Me la paso escuchando ja,ja... tengo muchos ancestros Portugueses! 🤚🇺🇾
Ivo Napoleão
Maior cantora de todos OS tempos. Ninguem a supera. Obrigado Amalia
rapmaster
Oh, bay windows
Oh, tinny windows
Some doctor lives here
Oh, some doctor lives here
Oh, I come to take my advice
Oh, I've come to take my advice
Oh, I'm in a bad way with my love
Oh, I'm in a bad way with my love
[Chorus]
They're snails, they're snailitos
They're Spanish, they're Spanishitos
It's the Spanishitos, it's the Spanishitos
It's snails, it's snails
They're snails, they're snailitos
It's Spaniards, it's Spaniards
It's the Spaniards, it's the Spaniards
They're snailitos, they're snails
[Stanza 2]
Oh, one day I went to Spain
Oh, one day I went to Spain
I ate there with the Spaniards
I ate there with the Spaniards
Bacon roasted on a spit
I've been to Spain for a long time
In the snail sauce
In the snail sauce
[Refrain]
They're snails, they're snailitos
They're Spanish, they're Spanishitos
It's the Spaniards, it's the Spaniards
They're snails, they're snails
They're snails, they're snailitos
It's Spaniards, it's Spaniards
It's the Spaniards, it's the Spaniards
It's snailitos, it's the snails
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Avadora Mimouni
Desde crianca adorava esta musica ❤❤
rapmaster
Eu também!
José Manuel Rocha
Divina!
Sergio Freitas
Amália, ai Amalia! Jamais alguém conseguirá chegar aos seus "calcanhares". Mariza bem tenta, mas não vale apena, é em vão! Amália!! Só uma e mais ninguém...
Nevolandia Souza
Respeito o gosto de cada um,mais a melhor mûsica portuguêsa foi cantada por o português Roberto Lea,eram alegres dançantes joviais lindas,ele trouxe a legria a juventude.de Portugal para o Brasil e o mundo,nen um artista Português cantou e representou esse país como ele,sem contar que era lindissimo.por fora e pir dentro
Hugo Oliveira
@Nevolandia Souza cale-se, não diga disparates