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.
Lisboa Antiga
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Cheia de encanto e beleza
Sempre a sorrir tão formosa
E no vestir sempre airosa
O branco véu da saudade
Cobre o teu rosto linda princesa
Olhai, senhores, esta Lisboa d'outras eras
Das festas, das seculares procissões
Dos populares pregões matinais que já não voltam mais
Lisboa, velha cidade
Cheia de encanto e beleza
Sempre a sorrir tão formosa
E no vestir sempre airosa
O branco véu da saudade
Cobre o teu rosto linda princesa
Olhai, senhores, esta Lisboa d'outras eras
Dos cinco réis, das esperas e das toiradas reais
Das festas, das seculares procissões
Dos populares pregões matinais que já não voltam mais
Das festas, das seculares procissões
Dos populares pregões matinais que já não voltam mais
Amália Rodrigues's song Lisboa Antiga is an ode to the old, charming and beautiful city of Lisbon. The first stanza describes Lisbon as a princess, always smiling and elegant in her dress, but now covered with a white veil of nostalgia. The second stanza, spoken by a narrator, invites the audience to look at Lisbon of bygone eras, with references to the "cinco réis" (a former currency in Portugal), bullfights, festivities and popular morning announcements that no longer exist.
The lyrics of Lisboa Antiga are filled with a sense of longing for the past and an acknowledgement that times have changed. The comparison of Lisbon to a princess and the reference to the veil of nostalgia highlights the idea that the city and its inhabitants miss the old Lisbon, with its charm and traditions. The references to specific events and practices such as bullfights and popular morning announcements further emphasize the nostalgia for a time gone by.
Overall, Lisboa Antiga is a melancholic but affectionate homage to the ancient Portuguese city, its traditions, and its history.
Line by Line Meaning
Lisboa, velha cidade
Lisboa, an old city
Cheia de encanto e beleza
full of charm and beauty
Sempre a sorrir tão formosa
always smiling so beautifully
E no vestir sempre airosa
and always dressed with grace
O branco véu da saudade
the white veil of nostalgia
Cobre o teu rosto linda princesa
covers your face, beautiful princess
Olhai, senhores, esta Lisboa d'outras eras
Look, gentlemen, at this Lisbon of other times
Dos cinco réis, das esperas e das toiradas reais
The five reais, the waits and the royal bullfights
Das festas, das seculares procissões
the festivals, the secular processions
Dos populares pregões matinais que já não voltam mais
the popular morning cries that will not return anymore
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing
Written by: Amadeu Do Vale, Jose Galhardo, Raul Portela
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@arsenijearsic309
Lisboa, velha cidade,
cheia d'encanto e beleza,
sempre sorrir tão Formosa,
e no vestir sempre airosa.
O branco véu da saudade,
o teu rosto linda princesa!
Olhais senhores, esta Lisboa d'otras eras
dos cinco reis, das esperas e das toiradas reais.
Das festas, das seculares procissões,
e das populares pergões matinais que já não voltam mais!
@OCicrano
Old Lisbon
Oh Lisbon, old city,
Full of enchantment and beauty!
Always smiling, so well shaped
And in dressing always airy.
The white veil of longing
Covers your face, oh wonderful princess!
Take a look, oh gentlemen, at this Lisbon of other ages,
Of the five réis, of the bull races and of the royal bullfights!
Of the parties, of the centuries-old processions,
Of the popular grocers' morning shouts that will not be back
again!
Lisbon of gold and silver,
I can't see a prettier one
Eternally singing
And dancing for being joyful
Your countenance is portrayed
On the crystal blue of the Tejo.
@CarlosRoberto-re9gp
Orgulho- me de falar essa língua melódica maravilhosa. Deus abençoe Portugal.
@gabrielcoutinho599
Obrigado, Portugal, por terem nos dado essa língua bonita e a fé católica. Abraços do Brasil
@puraortega3835
Expectacular la voz de Amalia Rodriguez!!! Y la letra,vaya temazo!!!
@ChristusMiles
AMÉM!!!!!!!!!
@mariocalabrese1873
Obrigado pela herança cultural, Portugal! Sou ítalo-brasileiro de sangue e luso-brasileiro de alma!
@MegaDonConejo
El FADO no es meramente portugués, el Fado es del mundo. Su música y sentimiento conmueven a quien los escucha, con independencia de que entienda o no la letra, o lo escuche en una versión en su idioma. Y la Sra. Amália Rodrigues ha hecho un aporte universal con sus fados. Crecí en Córdoba, Argentina, y en los 40 y 50 disfruté muchos fados en versión española. Morando ahora en Brasil, tengo la fortuna de entender portugués y sigo sus letras en un buscador. Placer de placeres!! Emocionante!!!
@nilceapessanha3160
Amo música Portuguesa, sonho conhecer Portugal 😢
@cidaliaterra4771
Seja muito bem vindo 😃
Abraço 🇵🇹
@ntavares540
Meu Deus, como pode haver pessoas que nao gostaram dessa musica?! Amo tanto. Amalia maravilhosa. <3 Um abrac,o aqui do Brasil.
@antoniopedrosaraivalopesda7714
Há quem não goste só por ser uma música portuguesa.