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.
Gondarém
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Pátria de contrabandistas
A farda dos bandoleiros
Não consinto que ma vistas
Numa banda a Espanha morta
Noutra Portugal sombrio
Entre ambos galopa um rio
E grito, grito: Acudi-me
Ganhei dor busquei prazer
E sinto que vou morrer
Na própria pátria do crime
Vou morrer a Gondarém
Pátria de contrabandistas
A farda dos bandoleiros
Não consinto que ma vistas
Por mor de aprender o vira
Fui traído mas por fim
Sei hoje, que era a mentira
Que então chamava por mim
Nada haverá que me acoite
Meu amor, meu inimigo
E aceito das mãos da noite
A memória por castigo
Vim morrer a Gondarém
Pátria de contrabandistas
A farda dos bandoleiros
Não consinto que ma vistas
In the song "Gondarém" by Amália Rodrigues, the lyrics depict a sense of longing, betrayal, and acceptance of one's fate. Gondarém is a town known for its smugglers, and the singer declares that they have come to die there. The mention of the "farda dos bandoleiros," which translates to the uniform of the bandits, suggests that the singer does not want to be associated with the criminal activities of this place.
The lyrics continue with a reference to a dead Spain and a gloomy Portugal, noting that there is a river between both countries that never stops at the singer's door. This can be interpreted as a metaphor for a separation or division, perhaps reflecting the singer's feelings of being caught between two worlds or unable to find a sense of belonging.
There is a cry for help, a plea to be saved, as the singer confesses that they have experienced pain and sought pleasure but now feel that they are going to die in their homeland, which they refer to as the "pátria do crime," meaning the homeland of crime. It suggests a disillusionment with their own country, possibly due to the corrupt or immoral actions taking place there.
The singer then reflects on being betrayed while trying to learn the traditional dance known as the "vira." They have come to realize that the call for them was a lie, perhaps a metaphor for false promises or deceit. Despite this, they acknowledge that there is nothing to shelter or protect them, whether it be love or their enemies. They resign themselves to accepting punishment, symbolized by accepting the memory from the hands of the night.
The repetition of the lines throughout the song emphasizes the singer's strong emotions and reinforces the central themes of betrayal, longing, and acceptance of their inevitable fate in Gondarém.
Line by Line Meaning
Vim morrer a Gondarém
I came to die in Gondarém
Pátria de contrabandistas
Homeland of smugglers
A farda dos bandoleiros
The uniform of bandits
Não consinto que ma vistas
I won't allow you to wear it
Numa banda a Espanha morta
In one band lies dead Spain
Noutra Portugal sombrio
In another, somber Portugal
Entre ambos galopa um rio
Between them, a river gallops
Que não pára à minha porta
That doesn't stop at my door
E grito, grito: Acudi-me
And I shout, shout: Help me
Ganhei dor busquei prazer
I gained pain, sought pleasure
E sinto que vou morrer
And I feel that I'm going to die
Na própria pátria do crime
In the very homeland of crime
Por mor de aprender o vira
In order to learn the vira dance
Fui traído mas por fim
I was betrayed, but in the end
Sei hoje, que era a mentira
I know now that it was a lie
Que então chamava por mim
That was calling for me then
Nada haverá que me acoite
Nothing will shelter me
Meu amor, meu inimigo
My love, my enemy
E aceito das mãos da noite
And I accept from the hands of the night
A memória por castigo
The memory as punishment
Vim morrer a Gondarém
I came to die in Gondarém
Pátria de contrabandistas
Homeland of smugglers
A farda dos bandoleiros
The uniform of bandits
Não consinto que ma vistas
I won't allow you to wear it
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: Barbosa Plopschi, Mirna, Sandra Sa
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind