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.
Cravos De Papel
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Na rua de lá vem um
Sete facas apontadas
Ao coraçao em jejum
Meu compadre Sao Joao
Das fogueiras, das cantigas
Ficarei par ou parnão
Não julge lá que me enjeita,
Assim com duas razões
O meu demónio aproveita
As melhores ocasiões
O meu demónio aproveita
As melhores ocasiões
Meninas, vossos amores
São como água corrente
Na margem, prados e flores;
Ao meio, afoga-se a gente.
Amorzinho, lua nova,
Rica fruta de pomar.
Quem será que tira a prova
Do vinho do teu lagar?
Tenho sete enamorados
Na rua de lá vem um
Sete facas apontadas
Ao coraçao em jejum
Tenho sete enamorados
Na rua de lá vem um
Tenho sete enamorados
Na rua de lá vem um
Sete facas apontadas
Ao coraçao em jejum
The lyrics of Amália Rodrigues's song Cravos De Papel describe the dilemma of a young woman with seven lovers, one of whom she is particularly drawn to. The first verse paints a dangerous picture as the singer describes her lovers as having knives pointed at her hungry heart. In the following lines, she turns to her compadre (godfather or close friend) for advice, questioning whether she should stay loyal to her chosen one or pursue other women. There is a sense of conflict as the singer's inner demon tries to take advantage of her indecision.
The second verse provides a contrast between the singer's predicament and the more innocent love of other girls. She likens their love to a flowing river that can drown a person in the middle. The third verse returns to the singer's own situation, as she reveals her love for the one man who is currently approaching her street. The repetition of the first two lines emphasizes her attachment to him, despite the danger he might pose to her.
The song's lyrics explore themes of love, desire, and temptation, as well as the conflicting emotions that arise when one has multiple romantic interests. The imagery of knives and drowning adds a sense of danger and urgency to the story, while the singer's reliance on her compadre highlights the importance of friendship and guidance in matters of the heart.
Line by Line Meaning
Tenho sete enamorados
I have seven lovers
Na rua de lá vem um
From the other street comes one
Sete facas apontadas
Seven knives pointed
Ao coraçao em jejum
Towards the hungry heart
Meu compadre Sao Joao
My friend Saint John
Das fogueiras, das cantigas
Of the bonfires, of the songs
Ficarei par ou parnão
Will I stay or will I go
Com as outras raparigas?
With the other girls?
Não julgue lá que me enjeita,
Don't judge that I reject,
Assim com duas razões
With two reasons
O meu demónio aproveita
My demon takes advantage
As melhores ocasiões
Of the best opportunities
Meninas, vossos amores
Girls, your loves
São como água corrente
Are like running water
Na margem, prados e flores;
On the bank, meadows and flowers
Ao meio, afoga-se a gente.
In the middle, people drown.
Amorzinho, lua nova,
My little love, new moon
Rica fruta de pomar.
Rich fruit from the orchard.
Quem será que tira a prova
Who will test
Do vinho do teu lagar?
The wine from your cellar?
Tenho sete enamorados
I have seven lovers
Na rua de lá vem um
From the other street comes one
Tenho sete enamorados
I have seven lovers
Na rua de lá vem um
From the other street comes one
Tenho sete enamorados
I have seven lovers
Na rua de lá vem um
From the other street comes one
Sete facas apontadas
Seven knives pointed
Ao coraçao em jejum
Towards the hungry heart
Contributed by David D. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Lurdes Zuzarte
Tenho sete enamorados
na rua de lá vem um
sete facas apontadas
ao coraçao em jejum
Meu compadre Sao Joao
das fogueiras, das cantigas
ficarei par ou parnão
com as outras raparigas?
Não julge lá que me enjeita,
assim com duas razões
o meu demónio aproveita
as melhores ocasiões
o meu demónio aproveita
as melhores ocasiões
Meninas, vossos amores
são como água corrente
na margem, prados e flores;
Ao meio, afoga-se a gente.
Amorzinho, lua nova,
rica fruta de pomar.
quem será que tira a prova
do vinho do teu lagar?
Tenho sete enamorados
na rua de lá vem um
Sete facas apontadas
ao coraçao em jejum
Tenho sete enamorados
na rua de lá vem um
Tenho sete enamorados
na rua de lá vem um
Sete facas apontadas
ao coraçao em jejum