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 Menor
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Dando luz triste ao meu rosto
Os meus olhos são dois círios
Dando luz triste ao meu rosto
Marcado pelos martírios
Da saudade e do desgosto
Marcado pelos martírios
Quando oiço bater trindades
E a tarde já vai no fim
Quando oiço bater trindades
E a tarde já vai no fim
Eu peço às tuas saudades
Um padre nosso por mim
Eu peço às tuas saudades
Um padre nosso por mim
Mas não sabes fazer preces
Não tens saudade nem pranto
Mas não sabes fazer preces
Não tens saudade nem pranto
Por que é que tu me aborreces
Por que é que eu te quero tanto
Por que é que tu me aborreces
Por que é que eu te quero tanto
És para meu desespero
Como as nuvens que andam altas
És para meu desespero
Como as nuvens que andam altas
Todos os dias te espero
Todos os dias me faltas
Todos os dias te espero
Todos os dias me faltas
The opening lines of the song "Fado Menor" by Amália Rodrigues evoke a sense of sadness and melancholy with the image of "candles" or "wax tapers" as the singer describes her own eyes, which give a "sad light" to her face. The repetition of these lines emphasizes the metaphor and emphasizes the singer's state of mind, marked by the "sufferings" of longing and heartbreak. The second verse also repeats this sentiment, indicating an ongoing state of pain and grief.
The middle verses of the song shift slightly, focusing on the singer's request for prayers or intercession from someone who has the capacity for such prayers. The mention of "trindades" ("trinities") could imply a religious ceremony or time of day, suggesting a spiritual element to the song's narrative. The singer is seeking help or relief from her suffering, but realizes that the person she is addressing may not have the necessary empathy or ability to comfort her.
The final verse returns to the theme of waiting and feeling incomplete without the presence of the person she is addressing. The metaphorical image of the clouds emphasizes the impermanence of this waiting, as the clouds are always "high" and fleeting. The last line of this verse is especially poignant, as it highlights the singer's sense of hopelessness and her need for the person who is absent, who fails to fulfill her expectations and soothe her pain.
Line by Line Meaning
Os meus olhos são dois círios
My eyes are two candles
Dando luz triste ao meu rosto
Giving a sad light to my face
Marcado pelos martírios
Marked by the torments
Da saudade e do desgosto
Of longing and sorrow
Quando oiço bater trindades
When I hear the bell tolling
E a tarde já vai no fim
And the afternoon is already ending
Eu peço às tuas saudades
I ask your memories
Um padre nosso por mim
To say a Hail Mary for me
Mas não sabes fazer preces
But you don't know how to pray
Não tens saudade nem pranto
You don't have longing or tears
Por que é que tu me aborreces
Why do you annoy me
Por que é que eu te quero tanto
Why do I love you so much
És para meu desespero
You are for my despair
Como as nuvens que andam altas
Like the clouds that move high
Todos os dias te espero
I wait for you every day
Todos os dias me faltas
Every day you are missing from me
Writer(s): linhares barbosa
Contributed by Sarah I. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@melijov
Cuanto sentimiento!! Muy grande Amalia!!! Que bella voz!!! La Reina del Fado!!
@nedelchev54
Great classic fado! Amalia's interpretation is just superb! Diva Eterna!
@cibusana
Lindo!!!!A interpretação de Amália é de arrepiar!!!Amália é demais!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@carmencitamaria53
Voz como a da Amália não haverá outra... arrepia ouvi-la cantar, é sem duvida a Queen of the FADO...
@appafonso
Incrivel! AMÁLIA É SEMPRE EMOCIONANTE! Deslumbrante Amália, obrigado. ap
@eubfado
Heavenly !!!! A voz do ceu Amalia forever.....
@fernanda1397
Amália canta com puro sentimento , como se diz ,tudo isso existe tudo isso é triste tudo isso é fado .O fado é nostálgico ,👏🙏🌈❤️
@betossag
Lindo, simplesmente lindo! Obrigado pelo vídeo!!!
@ashencold2987
Amalia é sentimento, emoção pura
@josemvl90
Amália da Piedade Rebordão Rodrigues nasceu em Lisboa em 1920 (PARA NUNCA MAIS MORRER).