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.
Conta Errada
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Na escola de tenra idade
Foi mais tarde, ainda às contas,
Que fiz contas com alguém
Eu e tu, naquela ermida,
Somamos felicidade!
Mas um dia fui seguida
De traições que tem a vida
Tinha um homem, fui tentada,
Somei outra conta errada
Fiz a prova, não fiz bem!
Um e um são dois
E é o céu, talvez.
Vem mais um depois
Dois e um são três!
Do total tirei a lição final
Somar, meu bem, somei,
Mas no amor errei
Fiz as contas mal!
Uma traição, mesmo aos traidores,
Faz contas e contas certas:
Multiplica as nossas dores
E divide uma afeição!
Nesta altura, tu comigo,
Das contas, ainda resta!
Só te peço que, ao castigo,
Diminuas o que eu digo
Nesta negra confissão!
De uma falsa que é sincera
Que te espera mas não espera
Contar mais com teu perdão!
The lyrics of Amália Rodrigues's song Conta Errada talk about how the singer learned to do math early in life, but later on made a mistake when adding up accounts with someone. The first verse describes a time of happiness when the singer and their partner were adding up their love, and everything felt complete. However, the second verse tells a different story, where the singer made a mistake in their calculations when they were tempted by another man. The chorus reflects on the lesson learned, that even though one may know how to add up numbers, it doesn't necessarily mean they know how to add up love. The final verse features the singer confessing to their partner about their infidelity, and asking for forgiveness.
The theme of the song is a cautionary tale about the dangers of infidelity and the importance of valuing trust and loyalty in relationships. The lyrics use the metaphor of mathematics to describe the calculations of the heart, which can lead to misunderstanding and pain if not done correctly. The use of metaphors, imagery, and themes of love and betrayal make this song a representation of Amália Rodrigues's musical style, known as fado, which is rooted in Portuguese culture and deeply emotional.
Line by Line Meaning
Aprendi a fazer contas
I learned how to do math
Na escola de tenra idade
In the school of tender age
Foi mais tarde, ainda às contas,
Later on, still counting,
Que fiz contas com alguém
I did math with someone
Eu e tu, naquela ermida,
You and I, in that chapel,
Somamos felicidade!
We added happiness!
Mas um dia fui seguida
But one day I was followed
De traições que tem a vida
By the betrayals that life has
Que elas mais que a vida tem:
That they have more than life does:
Tinha um homem, fui tentada,
I had a man, I was tempted
Somei outra conta errada
I added another wrong calculation
Fiz a prova, não fiz bem!
I took the test, I didn't do well!
Um e um são dois
One and one are two
E é o céu, talvez.
And maybe it's heaven.
Vem mais um depois
Another one comes after
Dois e um são três!
Two and one are three!
Do total tirei a lição final
From the total I took the final lesson
Somar, meu bem, somei,
Adding, my dear, I added
Mas no amor errei
But in love I made a mistake
Fiz as contas mal!
I did the math wrong!
Uma traição, mesmo aos traidores,
A betrayal, even to the betrayers,
Faz contas e contas certas:
Makes correct calculations upon calculations:
Multiplica as nossas dores
Multiplies our pains
E divide uma afeição!
And divides an affection!
Nesta altura, tu comigo,
At this time, you with me,
Das contas, ainda resta!
From the calculations, there's still something left!
Só te peço que, ao castigo,
I only ask you that, in punishment,
Diminuas o que eu digo
You lessen what I say
Nesta negra confissão!
In this dark confession!
De uma falsa que é sincera
From a liar who is sincere
Que te espera mas não espera
Who waits for you but doesn't wait
Contar mais com teu perdão!
To count more on your forgiveness!
Contributed by Asher E. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Walter Andrade
A GRANDE,FABULOSA,ESPLÊNDIDA,E ETERNA DAMA DA CANÇÃO PORTUGUESA...!
Lídia Tadeu Carneiro
Maravilhosa música , cantora para a qual não há elogios suficientes !!!
Renato Nunes
Ha algo na letra dramatica deste fado que me comove e fascina. E um dos que mais gosto, do extenso e magnifico reportorio da nossa Rainha do Fado, ate hoje tao imitada mas nunca igualada. Quantas infelizes mulheres nao terao cantado em silencio semelhante Fado. Coloquei este lindo Fado na pagina do F.B. TUNES OF A LIFETIME.
Pecos V
Amalia ...Que inmensa cantante. Simplemente ETERNA.-
Pecos V
BELLISIMO tema, en la voz de AMALIA sin palabras simplemente MAGNIFICO...IMPONDERABLE....
Eleftherios Manousis
I love her, the voice, the legend. I still remember the days of my studies in Lisbon, back in 1991 (as an exchange student) and the great fado nights in various neighborhoods of erotic Lisbon. A voz de Portugual, obrigado! Um grego
Ivo Napoleao
A maior voz do século XX. Eterna e saudosa Amália.
Daniela Farinha
A voz de Portugal 🙏
Vitoria Nunes
grande fadista Amália sempre
herminiopaulo
Vitoria Nu nes