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.
Fado Lisboeta
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
quando uma garganta se enche e desgarra
que a mágoa já não é tanta
se a confessar à guitarra
quem canta sempre se ausenta
da hora cinzenta da sua amargura
não sente a cruz tão pesada
na longa estrada da desventura
eu só entendo o fado
p'la gente amargurada à noite a soluçar baixinho
que chega ao coração num tom magoado
tão frio como as neves do caminho
que chora uma saudade ou canta ansiedade
de quem tem por amor chorado
dirão que isto é fatal, é natural
mas é lisboeta
e isto é que é o fado
oiço guitarras vibrando e vozes cantandona rua sombria
as luzes vão se apagando a anunciar que é já dia
fecho em silêncio a janela, já se ouve na viela
rumores de ternura
surge a manhã fresca e calma
só na minha alma é noite escura
eu so entendo o fado
p'la gente amargurada à noite a soluçar baixinho
que chega ao coração num tom magoado
tão frio como as neves do caminho
que chora uma saudade ou canta ansiedade
de quem tem por amor chorado
dirão que isto é fatal, é natural
mas é lisboeta
e isto é que é o fado
The lyrics of Amália Rodrigues's song "Fado Lisboeta" speak to the emotional power of the Portuguese style of music known as fado, which is characterized by mournful melodies and lyrics that often deal with themes of loss, longing, and heartbreak. The first verse urges listeners not to judge or take offense at the singer's expression of pain, as the act of singing itself can be a way to release and transcend it. The second verse describes the singer's personal connection to fado, saying that they only really understand it when they hear it at night, sung by someone who is themselves in pain. The final verse paints a picture of the city of Lisbon at dawn, with the sounds of fado drifting through the streets and the singer feeling as though they are in the midst of a dark night while the world awakens around them.
Line by Line Meaning
não queiram mal a quem canta
Don't judge the emotions of the singer who pours their heart out in song
quando uma garganta se enche e desgarra
When a person's voice is full and breaks, revealing their deep emotions
que a mágoa já não é tanta
The sorrow decreases when it is revealed through music with a guitar
se a confessar à guitarra
The guitar becomes a confidant for the singer's pain
quem canta sempre se ausenta
The singer loses themselves in the music of their own heart
da hora cinzenta da sua amargura
The moment of their sadness becomes more bearable through the music
não sente a cruz tão pesada
The burden of their sorrow lightens through the act of singing
na longa estrada da desventura
Even though their path is long and full of misfortune
eu só entendo o fado
I only understand the fado music
p'la gente amargurada à noite a soluçar baixinho
Because it speaks to those who are burdened with sorrow, crying softly at night
que chega ao coração num tom magoado
The music touches the heart with a sad, cold tone
tão frio como as neves do caminho
As cold as the snow on the path, reflecting the singer's loneliness
que chora uma saudade ou canta ansiedade
The music cries for a longing or sings of an anxious heart
de quem tem por amor chorado
Of those who have shed tears for love
dirão que isto é fatal, é natural
Some may say that it is inevitable and natural
mas é lisboeta
But it is unique to Lisbon
e isto é que é o fado
This is what fado is
oiço guitarras vibrando e vozes cantando
I hear guitars vibrating and voices singing
na rua sombria
On the dark street
as luzes vão se apagando a anunciar que é já dia
The lights start to go out, signifying that it's already daybreak
fecho em silêncio a janela
I quietly close the window
já se ouve na viela
Sounds of tenderness start to emerge from the alleyway
rumores de ternura
Whispers of tenderness
surge a manhã fresca e calma
The fresh and calm morning emerges
só na minha alma é noite escura
But in my soul, it is still a dark night
Contributed by Stella I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.