Amália da Piedade Rebordão Rodrigues (1920–1999) was a Portuguese singer an… Read Full Bio ↴Amália da Piedade Rebordão Rodrigues (1920–1999) was a Portuguese singer and actress.

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 Nao Sejas Francesca
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Não namores os franceses
Menina, Lisboa,
Portugal é meigo às vezes
Mas certas coisas não perdoa
Vê-te bem no espelho
Desse honrado velho
Que o seu belo exemplo atrai
Vai, segue o seu leal conselho

Não dês desgostos ao teu pai

Lisboa não sejas francesa
Com toda a certeza
Não vais ser feliz
Lisboa, que ideia daninha
Vaidosa, alfacinha,
Casar com Paris
Lisboa, tens cá namorados
Que dizem, coitados,
Com as almas na voz
Lisboa, não sejas francesa
Tu és portuguesa
Tu és só pra nós

Tens amor às lindas fardas
Menina, Lisboa,
Vê lá bem pra quem te guardas
Donzela sem recato, enjoa
Tens aí tenentes,
Bravos e valentes,
Nados e criados cá,
Vá, tenha modos mais decentes
Menina caprichosa e má

Lisboa não sejas francesa

Overall Meaning

In this song, Amália Rodrigues is advising Lisbon (Lisboa) to not follow the ways of the French and instead embrace its Portuguese heritage. The lyrics talk about how Portugal may be kind at times, but there are some things it cannot forgive. Amalia urges Lisbon to take a good look at the example set by its honorable ancestors, and not cause any grief to its father (Portugal). She warns Lisbon not to become French, as it will not be happy and instead encourages it to cherish its Portuguese identity.

Amália also addresses Lisbon's love for fancy clothes and warns her to be careful about who she gives her heart to. She says that Lisbon has no reason to marry Paris, as there are plenty of suitors in Lisbon who are devoted and have genuine love for her. She encourages Lisbon to be modest and decent in her ways and not be a capricious and bad girl.

This song is a warning to Lisbon to uphold its values and heritage and not to be swept away by French influence. It reflects the lingering influence of the French in Portuguese society and culture, particularly in Lisbon, where France had a significant cultural impact during the 19th century.

Line by Line Meaning

Não namores os franceses
Don't fall in love with the French

Menina, Lisboa,
Girl, Lisbon,

Portugal é meigo às vezes
Portugal is kind sometimes

Mas certas coisas não perdoa
But certain things are not forgiven

Vê-te bem no espelho
Look at yourself in the mirror

Desse honrado velho
Of that honorable old man

Que o seu belo exemplo atrai
Whose beautiful example attracts

Vai, segue o seu leal conselho
Go, follow his loyal advice

Não dês desgostos ao teu pai
Don't give your father grief

Lisboa não sejas francesa
Lisbon, don't be French

Com toda a certeza
Without a doubt