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.
Eu Disse Adeus a Casinha
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Do nosso amor em má hora
Eu disse adeus, mas não tinha
Saudades que tenho agora!
Eu disse adeus aos teus beijos também
Mal a abalar o meu ninho
Disse adeus aos teus desejos
Com um Santo Antônio velhinho
E ao dizer-te adeus, vendida
Disse adeus à vida
Que era o teu carinho!
Eu disse adeus à ventura banal
De ter um lar e uma brasa!
Eu disse adeus à procura
Da sorte que tinha em casa
Eu disse adeus por maldade, fiz mal!
Sei que entre as mais raparigas
Vais matar esta saudade
Olha, se amares de verdade
O meu exemplo não siga!
Vale às vezes mais ser mudo!
Meu amor, diz tudo
Mas adeus, não diga!
Vale às vezes mais ser mudo!
Meu amor, diz tudo
Mas adeus, não diga!
The lyrics to Amália Rodrigues's song "Eu Disse Adeus a Casinha" describe the regret and nostalgia that the singer experiences after leaving their home and love behind. The first verse describes the hasty decision to say goodbye to their home and love, without fully realizing the depth of their feelings. The second verse describes the physical items left behind, including a painting of St. Anthony, and the pain of leaving not just the home, but the care and affection of their lover. The third verse reflects on the simplicity and comfort that comes with having a home and love, and the callousness of leaving it all behind out of spite. The singer warns their lover not to make the same mistake and to not say goodbye, even if it means staying silent.
Line by Line Meaning
Eu disse adeus à casinha, meu bem
I left our home, my love
Do nosso amor em má hora
Our love was a mistake
Eu disse adeus, mas não tinha
I said goodbye, but I didn't mean it
Saudades que tenho agora!
Now I miss it all
Eu disse adeus aos teus beijos também
I also said goodbye to your kisses
Mal a abalar o meu ninho
As they were shaking my home
Disse adeus aos teus desejos
I said goodbye to your desires
E ao meu painel de azulejos
And to my tile panel
Com um Santo Antônio velhinho
With an old Santo Antônio
E ao dizer-te adeus, vendida
As I said goodbye, I betrayed you
Disse adeus à vida
I said goodbye to the life we had
Que era o teu carinho!
Which was your love
Eu disse adeus à ventura banal
I said goodbye to our ordinary happiness
De ter um lar e uma brasa!
Of having a home and warmth
Eu disse adeus à procura
I said goodbye to searching
Da sorte que tinha em casa
For the luck we had at home
Eu disse adeus por maldade, fiz mal!
I said goodbye out of spite, and it was wrong
Sei que entre as mais raparigas
I know that among other girls
Vais matar esta saudade
You will find someone new to forget me
Olha, se amares de verdade
But if you truly love
O meu exemplo não siga!
Don't follow my example!
Vale às vezes mais ser mudo!
Sometimes it's better to stay silent!
Meu amor, diz tudo
My love, say everything you need to say
Mas adeus, não diga!
But don't say goodbye!
Contributed by Jacob G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Maria Das Graças
"Deus que me perdoe!" Tem pessoas que não deveria morrer!!! Amália Rodrigues deixou muitíssimo saudosas pôr nos deixar tão cedo... ela era uma mulher de grande sucesso e cantora respeitada por onde passou. Perdão Jesus Cristo. Por eu pensar dessa maneira, pois sei que todos nós estamos nesse mundo por um pouco de tempo... Obrigada meu Deus. 👐👐👐
Quininha Melo
Lindo fado....assim como o painel de vitrais apresentado
Obrigada amigo Joaquim...beij.
Henrique Fagundes Vieira
Belíssimo Fado! Parabéns e obrigado por mais esta contribuição com a memória da nossa música. Saudações Fadistas
celtxty
Great approach on both great music and exclusive glass art! Touching video, congratulations!
Эдуард Мхитарян
Великая!
Gerlis Santos
LINDO, ETERNA AMALIA QUE JAMAIS MORRERÁ PARA MIM...