Amália da Piedade Rebordão Rodrigues (1920–1999) was a Portuguese singer an… Read Full Bio ↴Amália da Piedade Rebordão Rodrigues (1920–1999) was a Portuguese singer and actress.

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.

Corria Atras Das Cantigas
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Entrei na vida a cantar
E o meu primeiro lamento
Entrei na vida a cantar
E o meu primeiro lamento

Se foi cantado a chorar
Foi logo com sentimento
Se foi cantado a chorar

Foi logo com sentimento

Com as outras raparigas
Pelas ruas a brincar
Com as outras raparigas
Pelas ruas a brincar

Corria ao som das cantigas
Parava só p′ra cantar
Corria ao som das cantigas
Parava só p'ra cantar

Mais tarde, já mulherzinha
Cantei meu primeiro amor
Mais tarde, já mulherzinha
Cantei meu primeiro amor

E também cantei sozinha
A minha primeira dor
E também cantei sozinha
A minha primeira dor

A vida tenho passado
Alegre e triste, a chorar
A vida tenho passado
Alegre e triste, a chorar

Tem sido vário o meu fado
Mas constante o meu cantar

Tem sido vário o meu fado
Mas constante o meu cantar

Overall Meaning

The song "Corria Atras Das Cantigas" by Amália Rodrigues is a reflection on the singer's relationship with music throughout her life. The opening lines reveal that she entered life singing, and her first lament was sung with deep emotion. From there, she remembers playing with other girls in the streets, running to the sound of music, and stopping only to sing. As she grows into a woman, she sings about her first love and her first pain, all the while experiencing the ups and downs of life. Through it all, her singing has been a constant companion.

The lyrics suggest that music has been a source of both joy and consolation for Amália Rodrigues. She has sung through the happy times and the sad times, and found solace in her voice even when her life was difficult. Her dedication to music has been unwavering, and she has never stopped singing regardless of the circumstances. The song portrays music as a constant, reliable presence that has helped the singer navigate the complexities of life.

Overall, "Corria Atras Das Cantigas" celebrates the power of music to uplift, inspire, and comfort. The song reveals that for Amália Rodrigues, music has been a lifelong passion and a source of meaning and fulfillment. Through her singing, she has connected with others and shared her deepest emotions, creating a bond that transcends language and culture.

Line by Line Meaning

Entrei na vida a cantar
I started my life singing

E o meu primeiro lamento
And my first lament

Se foi cantado a chorar
If it was sung while crying

Foi logo com sentimento
It was immediately filled with emotion

Com as outras raparigas
With the other girls

Pelas ruas a brincar
Playing in the streets

Corria ao som das cantigas
Running to the sound of songs

Parava só p′ra cantar
Stopping just to sing

Mais tarde, já mulherzinha
Later, as a woman

Cantei meu primeiro amor
I sang about my first love

E também cantei sozinha
And I also sang alone