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.
Malhao De S. Simao
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Pra onde vais toda lampeira,
Morena de olhos travessos,
Pra onde vais toda lampeira?
Ó malhão, malhão
Pra onde vais toda lampeira?
Toda cheia de chieira?
Isto é de poderei-la
Chamaste-me de moreninha
Isto é de poderei-la!
Ai, malhão, malhão
Isto é de poderei-la
Hás de me ver ao domingo
Como a rosa na roseira!
Vai ter lugar que te o veja
Se fores domingo à missa
Vai ter lugar que te o veja!
Ai, malhão, malhão
Vai ter lugar que te o veja
Não fosses andar, meus olhos,
Além, lá em plena igreja!
Hei de ir à missa outro dia,
Para o domingo que vem
Hei de ir à missa outro dia!
Ai, malhão, malhão
Hei de ir à missa outro dia,
Para ver o meu amor
À porta da sacristia!
The song "Malhão De São Simão" by Amália Rodrigues is a traditional Portuguese folk song, popular in many rural regions of Portugal. The lyrics of the song depict a conversation between two lovers. The first stanza poses a question to the female lover, asking where she is off to in such a hurry, with all her charms and mischief. The reply comes in the form of a playful and flirtatious exchange, where the woman wittingly dodges the question, instead teasing the man with her words.
The second stanza sees the man trying to assert his power over the woman, by calling her "moreninha," a diminutive term for a dark-skinned woman, implying she is beneath him. The woman, however, swiftly turns the tables on him and makes it known that she is no one's inferior with her clever response. The final stanza concludes with the woman promising to attend mass the next Sunday in hopes of seeing her lover waiting for her at the church doors.
Overall, the song is a light-hearted and playful exchange between two lovers, showcasing the witty and flirtatious nature of traditional Portuguese courtship.
Line by Line Meaning
Pra onde vais toda lampeira,
Where are you going so brightly,
Morena de olhos travessos,
Brunette with mischievous eyes,
Pra onde vais toda lampeira?
Where are you going so brightly?
Ó malhão, malhão
Oh malhão, malhão
Pra onde vais toda lampeira?
Where are you going so brightly?
Tão depressa e troladinha
So fast and playful,
Toda cheia de chieira?
So full of fragrance?
Isto é de poderei-la
You called me little brunette,
Chamaste-me de moreninha
You called me little brunette,
Isto é de poderei-la!
You called me little brunette!
Ai, malhão, malhão
Oh malhão, malhão
Isto é de poderei-la
You called me little brunette,
Hás de me ver ao domingo
You'll see me on Sunday,
Como a rosa na roseira!
Like the rose on the rosebush!
Vai ter lugar que te o veja
There will be a place where you can see me,
Se fores domingo à missa
If you go to mass on Sunday,
Vai ter lugar que te o veja!
There will be a place where you can see me!
Ai, malhão, malhão
Oh malhão, malhão
Vai ter lugar que te o veja
There will be a place where you can see me,
Não fosses andar, meus olhos,
Don't wander, my eyes,
Além, lá em plena igreja!
Over there, in the churchyard!
Hei de ir à missa outro dia,
I'll go to mass another day,
Para o domingo que vem
For next Sunday,
Hei de ir à missa outro dia!
I'll go to mass another day!
Ai, malhão, malhão
Oh malhão, malhão
Hei de ir à missa outro dia,
I'll go to mass another day,
Para ver o meu amor
To see my love,
À porta da sacristia!
At the sacristy door!
Writer(s): GONCALVES
Contributed by Elijah P. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@danielameixamontero5429
A unica Reinha do Fado en Portugal e no todo o mundo.Eu canto as suas cantigas com muito prazer e vou lembrarme-me sempre a sua cara brilhante.Viva la cultura portuguesa !
@vittoriosansone8387
Questa musica mette la gioia di vivere nel nostro cuore! Grazie, Amalia dall'Italia con affetto!!!
@Gabriel-hs9mv
Vraiment étonnant comment on peut comprendre l’italien à l’écrit , et par ailleurs toutes les langues latines, sans nécessité de l’étudier. Je suis espagnol. Je parle espagnol, français et portugais et j’ai absolument tout compris de ce que vous avez dit. Ça ne cessera jamais de me surprendre.
Et oui, je suis d’accord. Amália est une merveille.
@marceldecastro6996
@@Gabriel-hs9mv le latin langue universelle !!!magnifique
@dolorescastrillon8804
Gracias por esta música precioso ,como todo lo de Portugal
@imperatorst1381
Ij
@gesnemunoz2355
Pra onde vais toda lampeira
Morena de olhos travessos
Pra onde vais toda lampeira?
Ó malhão, malhão
Pra onde vais toda lampeira?
Tão depressa e troladinha
Toda cheia de chieira?
Isto é do pó da eira
Chamaste-me de moreninha
Isto é do pó da eira
Ai, malhão, malhão
Isto é do pó da eira
Hás de me ver ao domingo
Como a rosa na roseira!
Põe-te em lugar que te o veja
Se fores domingo à missa
Põe-te em lugar que te o veja!
Ai, malhão, malhão
Põe-te em lugar que te o veja
Não faças andar, meus olhos
Em leilão pela igreja!
Hei de ir à missa outro dia,
Para o domingo que vem
Hei de ir à missa outro dia!
Ai, malhão, malhão
Hei de ir à missa outro dia,
Para ver o meu amor
À porta da sacristia!
@augustosousa7732
Que lindo é este malhao de Amália
@fabioaraujo8379
bom demaisss!!
@ryurudaraoni6950
ai q lindo