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.
Los Piconeros
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
luna lunera
Ha abierto su ventana
la piconera, la piconera ai,
y el piconero
va a la sierra cantando
con el lucero, con el lucero
ya viene mare, (Bis)
ya alumbrando su claras
los olivares (Bis)
Ay que me diga que sí,
ay que me diga que no
como no lo ha querido ninguna
lo quiero yo
el piconero
con el picón
por tu culpa, culpita yo tengo (Bis)
negro, negrito mi corazón (Bis)
Faja de sea lleva
mi piconero,
y un marsellés bordao
de terciopelo,
y en el sombrero, mare,
en el sombrero,
una cinta que dice:
"Por ti me muero".
Ya viene el día,
ya viene, mare, (Bis)
ya alumbrando su claras
los olivares (Bis)
Ay que me diga que sí,
ay que me diga que no
como no te camela ninguna
te quiero yo
mi piconero con el picón
por tu culpa, culpita yo tengo (Bis)
negro, negrito mi corazón (Bis)
The lyrics of "Los Piconeros" by Amália Rodrigues talks about the "piconeros," who are people who collect and sell "picon," a type of rock used as fuel, in the Sierra. The singer describes how the piconera has opened her window, and the piconero is going to the Sierra while singing with the lucero (morning star) shining in the sky. The first stanza suggests that it's nighttime as the moon has set. In the second stanza, the singer notes that day comes, and the olivares (olive groves) are illuminated by its light.
The chorus of the song asks the piconero to say yes or no to the singer's advances as she loves him. She says that no one has loved him before, so she does. The last stanza describes how the piconero is dressed in a faja de sea (sash), a marsellés bordao (embroidered Marseille jacket), and a sombrero (hat) with a cinta (ribbon) that says, "Por ti me muero" (I die for you).
Overall, the song appears to be a lament of a woman who is in love with a man who sells rocks for a living. She wants him to know how much she loves him, even though he doesn't seem to notice it.
Line by Line Meaning
Ya se ocultó la luna, luna lunera
The moon has set, oh moon
Ha abierto su ventana la piconera, la piconera ai, y el piconero va a la sierra cantando con el lucero, con el lucero
The girl from the village has opened her window, and the boy is going to the mountains singing with the morning star, with the morning star
Ya viene el día, ya viene mare, (Bis) ya alumbrando su claras los olivares (Bis)
The day is coming, oh mother, and the olive groves are shining in the light
Ay que me diga que sí, ay que me diga que no como no lo ha querido ninguna lo quiero yo el piconero con el picón por tu culpa, culpita yo tengo (Bis) negro, negrito mi corazón (Bis)
Oh, tell me yes, tell me no, because no one has loved you like I do: the boy with the pitchfork, because of you, my little fault, my heart is black
Faja de sea lleva mi piconero, y un marsellés bordao de terciopelo, y en el sombrero, mare, en el sombrero, una cinta que dice: Por ti me muero.
My boy wears a sash from the sea, and a Marseille vest embroidered in velvet, and on his hat, oh mother, on his hat, a ribbon that says: I die for you.
Contributed by Audrey O. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@toy2day1
Ya se ocultó la luna,
Luna lunera
Ya ha abierto su ventana
La piconera,
La piconera, mare
Y el piconero
Va a la sierra cantando
Con el lucero.
Estribillo:
Ya viene el día,
Ya viene, mare. (bis)
Alumbrando sus claras
Los olivares. (bis)
Ay, que me diga que sí,
Ay, que me diga que no.
Como no lo ha querio ninguna
Lo quiero yo.
Mi piconero, como el picón,
Por tu culpa, culpita, yo tengo
Negro, negrito, mi corazón. (bis)
- : - : - : - : -
Faja de sea lleva
Mi piconero
Y un marsellés bordao
De terciopelo,
De terciopelo, mare
Y en el sombrero
Una cinta que dice:
"Por ti me muero".
{Estribillo}
- : - : - : - : -
Mi piconero, como el picón,
Por tu culpa, culpita, yo tengo
Negro, negrito, mi corazón. (bis)
Taken from http://lyricstranslate.com/el/imperio-argentina-los-piconeros-lyrics.html#ixzz3auR5FxMc
@burcasgheorghe5924
Fabuleux !
@herasjulian
Grande AMALIA Copla y Fado desde Portugal hermano. Gracias
@lefteris7402
Σε εμας τους ελληνες παντα αρεσαν τα ισπανικα τραγουδια.... η Δαναη μας τα εμαθε
@griechereservist
What a woman, what avoice!!!! Μπράβο φίλε που το ανέβασες!!!!!
@mesutbars1538
Amalia... Amalia... Love from 🇹🇷
@cidmusicc
Excelente versión!! Una de las mejores!!
@menelaujesus
ouvir amália é ouvir toda beleza que expande da alma portuguesa
@tvendvd
Conocì desde siempre esta canciòn por Imperio Argentina, pero me sorprende gratamente esta versiòn de Amalia Rodrìguez en castellano Es estupenda. Gracias desde Argentina por subirla.
@nenadmarincic7716
Amalia ! , Amalia......
..con su
arte supremo...../su sensibilidad " portuguesa " -unica, incomparable , maravillosa.....!@mihalis100
Fueron las dos cantantes como voces de cielo como hoy ,los canciones que salieron de sus voces ,fueron unicas y quedaron para la posteridad ,ojala que la gloria y el tiempo lo transforme en leyenda, y Dios lo tenga en la gracias