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.
Estranha Forma De Vida
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Que eu vivo nesta ansiedade
Que todos os ais são meus
Que é toda minha a saudade
Foi por vontade de Deus
Que estranha forma de vida
Tem este meu coração
Quem lhe daria o condão?
Que estranha forma de vida
Coração independente
Coração que não comando
Vives perdido entre a gente
Teimosamente sangrando
Coração independente
E eu não te acompanho mais
Para deixa de bater
Se não sabes onde vais
Porque teimas em correr
Eu não te acompanho mais
Se não sabes onde vais
Para deixa de bater
Eu não te acompanho mais
Estranha Forma De Vida is a song sung by the famous fado singer Amália Rodrigues. It is a song of despair and longing for someone who feels lost and alone. The lyrics, written by Amália's friend and collaborator, Alfredo Marceneiro, describe the singer's estranged relationship with her own heart. The song begins with the singer wondering why she must live in such distress, why all the sighs are hers, why all the longing is hers. She blames it all on the will of God.
The song then moves on to describe the singer's broken and unconventional heart. She sings about how her heart lives a lost life and nobody can restore its vitality. The singer's heart is independent and stubborn, refusing to follow any commands. It is bleeding stubbornly amidst the people, which is the reason why the singer is in so much agony. The singer says that she cannot follow her heart, which is lost and aimless, so she implores it to stop beating.
The song Estranha Forma De Vida is a song that talks about longing, loss, and confusion, but most importantly, it portrays the power dynamics between the singer and her own heart. The song's melancholic melody matches the deep emotions expressed in the lyrics. The powerful voice of Amália Rodrigues catapulted the song and made it a classic. Estranha Forma De Vida is a significant part of the fado tradition and has been covered by many fadistas over the years.
Line by Line Meaning
Foi por vontade de Deus
It's because of God's will
Que eu vivo nesta ansiedade
That I live in this anxiety
Que todos os ais são meus
That all the moans are mine
Que é toda minha a saudade
That all the longing is mine
Que estranha forma de vida
What a strange way of life
Tem este meu coração
My heart has
Vives de forma perdida
Living aimlessly
Quem lhe daria o condão?
Who would give it the power?
Coração independente
Independent heart
Coração que não comando
A heart that I cannot control
Vives perdido entre a gente
Living lost among people
Teimosamente sangrando
Stubbornly bleeding
E eu não te acompanho mais
And I will not follow you anymore
Para deixa de bater
Stop beating
Se não sabes onde vais
If you don't know where you're going
Porque teimas em correr
Why do you insist on running?
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Alfredo Rodrigo Duarte, Amalia Da Piedade Rodrigues
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Manuel Pimentel
ENGLISH LYRICS FOR THE SONG "Estranha forma de vida" ("Strange way of life")
It was by the will of God
That I live in this anxiety,
That all the woes are mine,
That the saudade is all mine.
It was by the will of God.
:
What a strange way of living
That this heart of mine has.
You live in a lost way.
Who would give it the magic?
What a strange way of living.
:
An independent heart.
A heart which I do not contol.
You live lost among the peoples
Stubbornly bleeding.
An independent heart.
:
And I do not follow you anymore.
Stop, do not beat anymore.
If you do not know where you are going
Why do you insist in running?
I do not follow you anymore.
:
If you do not know where you are going
Stop, do not beat anymore.
I do not follow you anymore.
.
.
.
.
.
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I tried to give my best attempt to translate this absolutely magnificent piece of Portuguese poetry, the most difficult form of art to transmit to other nations, other peoples which have different backgrounds. I hope you've liked it.
J Oliveira
Foi por vontade de Deus
Que eu vivo nesta ansiedade
Que todos os ais são meus
Que é toda minha a saudade
Foi por vontade de Deus
Que estranha forma de vida
Tem este meu coração
Vives de forma perdida
Quem lhe daria o condão?
Que estranha forma de vida
Coração independente
Coração que não comando
Vives perdido entre a gente
Teimosamente sangrando
Coração independente
E eu não te acompanho mais
Para deixa de bater
Se não sabes onde vais
Porque teimas em correr
Eu não te acompanho mais
Se não sabes onde vais
Para deixa de bater
Eu não te acompanho mais
Yusting Case
fue por la voluntad de dios Que vivo en esta ansiedad
Que todos los problemas son míos
que todo mi anhelo es fue por la voluntad de dios
Que extraña forma de vida tener este corazón mío
vives de manera perdida ¿Quién le daría el hechizo? Que extraña forma de vida corazón independiente
Corazón que no mando
Vives perdido entre nosotros sangrando
obstinadamente
corazón independiente
y ya no te acompaño dejar de latir
Si no sabes a dónde vas ¿Por qué insistes en correr? ya no te sigo
Si no sabes a dónde vas dejar de latir ya no te sigo
João Lacerda
Sou Brasileiro moro na Holanda e tambem falo portugues :-) Esta cantora está um patamar acima do que é normal.
Amo Portugal e o povo que la habita.
Vladimir Kuzmin
Suo russo, moro em Holanda , falo portugues - e smepre adouro Amalia!!! Nao e so vossa , mas a nossa tambem!!!! De todo o mundo!!!
Somewhere in Time.
Que faz na Holanda e por que aprendeu o meu idioma???
Sandra Pinho
Obrigada 💗
thérése deleu de aguiar
Que pena senhor Poutine, não se ter lembrado disto, ou seja, que tem um coração, antes de mandar massacrar o Povo da Ukrania que nos amamos, aqui em Portugal.
Rita Santos
Obrigada Vladimir.
Ah algo de semelhante entre a guitarra portuguesa e a balalaica, o cantar da Amália e a Alma russa descrita por Tolstoi
fightback
Sou Russo , moro na Holanda , falo Portugues , - e sempre adoro Amalia . Ela nao e so vossa mas e nossa tambem .
Um grande abraco ❤💕
Cissa Leite
Sou brasileira,mas sempre ouvi fados...quando se ouve fados se navega por mares nunca dantes navegados...é descobrimentos!!!!
KAMMEL45
Letras tão bonitas, e desempenho tão excelente, bela voz e me sentindo muito, dói, dói de tão bonito que é. Eu sou mexicano e apenas dois anos atrás, eu ouvi pela primeira vez um fado, e foi precisamente com Amalia. E eu ainda estou ouvindo.
Maria Amador7
Nunca esquecerei esta senhora do fado e de tão bom coração