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.
Há Festa Na Mouraria
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
É dia da procissão
Da Senhora da Saúde
Até a Rosa Maria
Da Rua do Capelão
Parece que tem virtude
Colchas ricas nas janelas
Almas crentes, povo rude
Anda a fé pelas vielas
É dia da procissão
Da Senhora da Saúde
Após um curto rumor
Profundo silencio pesa:
Por sobre o Largo da Guia
Passa a Virgem no andor
Tudo se ajoelha e reza
Até a Rosa Maria
Como que petrificada
Em fervorosa oração
É tal a sua atitude
Que a rosa já desfolhada
Da Rua do Capelão
Parece que tem virtude
The song "Há festa na Mouraria" by Amália Rodrigues is a tribute to the annual procession that takes place in the neighbourhood of Mouraria in Lisbon, Portugal. The procession is in honour of "Nossa Senhora da Saúde" (Our Lady of Health) and is celebrated on a particular day of the year. The song describes the atmosphere of the neighbourhood on that day, with colourful rich bedspreads hanging from windows, flower petals scattered on the ground, and the procession winding through the narrow alleyways. The lyrics also highlight the devotion and piety of the people, who come out to witness the passage of the statue of the Virgin Mary on her ornate float. The singer of the song is a young woman named Rosa Maria, who is described as being so devout that even the rose petals scattered on the ground seem to possess some kind of mystical power.
The imagery used in the song is rich and evocative, painting a vivid picture of the bustling neighbourhood on the day of the procession. The use of contrasts, such as the "rich bedspreads" juxtaposed with the "rude people", creates a sense of a community coming together in celebration despite their differences. The song captures the essence of the religious and cultural traditions that are an integral part of the Mouraria neighbourhood, which has a long and proud history in Lisbon.
Line by Line Meaning
Há festa na Mouraria
There is a celebration in the Mouraria district
É dia da procissão
It's the day of the procession
Da Senhora da Saúde
For Our Lady of Health
Até a Rosa Maria
Including Rosa Maria
Da Rua do Capelão
From Capelão Street
Parece que tem virtude
It seems to have virtue
Colchas ricas nas janelas
Rich bedspreads on the windowsills
Pétalas soltas no chão
Loose petals on the ground
Almas crentes, povo rude
Faithful souls, rough people
Anda a fé pelas vielas
Faith walks through the alleys
Após um curto rumor
After a brief murmur
Profundo silencio pesa
A deep silence weighs
Por sobre o Largo da Guia
Over the Guia square
Passa a Virgem no andor
The Virgin passes on the litter
Tudo se ajoelha e reza
Everyone kneels and prays
Como que petrificada
As if petrified
Em fervorosa oração
In fervent prayer
É tal a sua atitude
Such is their attitude
Que a rosa já desfolhada
That even the already deflowered rose
Da Rua do Capelão
From Capelão Street
Parece que tem virtude
Seems to have virtue
Contributed by Kaelyn C. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Gesne Muñoz
Há Festa na Mouraria
Amália Rodrigues
Há festa na Mouraria,
é dia da procissão
da senhora da saúde.
Até a Rosa Maria
da rua do Capelão
parece que tem virtude.
Naquele bairro fadista
calaram-se as guitarradas:
não se canta nesse dia,
velha tradição bairrista,
vibram no ar badaladas,
há festa na Mouraria.
Colchas ricas nas janelas,
pétalas soltas no chão.
Almas crentes, povo rude
anda a fé pelas vielas:
é dia da procissão
da senhora da saúde.
Após um curto rumor
profundo siléncio pesa:
por sobre o largo da guia
passa a Virgem no andor.
Tudo se ajoelha e reza,
até a Rosa Maria.
Como que petrificada,
em fervorosa oração,
é tal a sua atitude,
que a rosa já desfolhada
da rua do Capelão
parece que tem virtude.
Arminda Almeida
Adoro... Não há palavras que descrevam tamanha beleza. Simplesmente Maravilhosa.
manuela figueira
Voz maravilhosa a da nossa grande Amália!
Rosa Nobrega
Lindíssimo
José Manuel Díaz de Terán Rodriguez
¡¡Que hermosura de fado e interpretación!!
Maria Noélia Francisco
Escutar-se-a a voz de Amália em qualquer parte do mundo enquanto houver gente com sensibilidade no mundo.
Daniel Habib
p
ISRAEL APARECIDO POLI poli
Inclusive no Brasil, eu adoro Amália Rodrigues ela esta nos quatro cantos do mundo estamos tristes com a partida do Roberto Leal também, nosso português brasileiro sem passaporte...
John Eubanks
There's no comparison to the grand Amalia No one sings like her....... Her unique voice is one in a Jillion Rest in peace Amalia
Ana Esmeralda Fadista
Adoro este Fado! Também o canto. É uma letra de Gabriel de Oliveira TiaMacheta. Saudações Fadistas!
cibusana
Lindo demais!!!!!!!!