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.
Nasci Para Ser Ignorante
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Mas os parentes teimaram
(e dali não arrancaram)
Em fazer de mim estudante.
Que remédio? Obedeci.
Há já três lustros que estudo.
Aprender, aprendi tudo,
Perdi o nome às Estrelas,
Aos nossos rios e aos de fora.
Confundo fauna com flora.
Atrapalham-me as parcelas.
Mas passo dias inteiros
A ver um rio passar.
Com aves e ondas do Mar
Tenho amores verdadeiros.
Rebrilha sempre uma Estrela
Por sobre o meu parapeito;
Pois não sou eu que me deito
Sem ter falado com ela.
Conheço mais de mil flores.
Elas conhecem-me a mim.
Só não sei como em latim
As crismaram os doutores.
No entanto sou promovido,
Mal haja lugar aberto,
A mestre: julgam-me esperto,
Inteligente e sabido.
O pior é se um director
Espreita p'la fechadura:
Lá se vai licenciatura
Se ouve as lições do doutor.
Lá se vai o ordenado
De tuta-e-meia por mês.
Lá fico eu de uma vez
Um Poeta desempregado.
Se me não lograr o fado
Porém, com tais directores,
E de rios, aves e flores
Somente for vigiado,
Enquanto as aulas correrem
Não sentirei calafrios,
Que flores, aves e rios
Ignorante é que me querem.
The lyrics of "Nasci Para Ser Ignorante" by Amália Rodrigues explore the dichotomy between education and the beauty of nature. The singer expresses that they were born to be ignorant, but their relatives insisted on making them a student. Despite studying for three decades, the narrative ultimately feels as though they have not gained any knowledge, as they have lost touch with the natural world around them. They have forgotten the names of stars, rivers, fauna, and flora. However, they find solace in watching rivers and enjoying the company of birds and ocean waves, which they see as truer loves than anything they could learn in a classroom.
Furthermore, the singer feels conflicted about their academic success, as they worry that they will not be able to keep up with the expectations of a director, potentially losing their livelihood as a result. Despite feeling pressured to meet societal expectations of intelligence, they ultimately feel more at home in the ignorance of nature.
Line by Line Meaning
Nasci para ser ignorante
I was born to be ignorant
Mas os parentes teimaram
But my relatives insisted
(e dali não arrancaram)
(and they didn't give up there)
Em fazer de mim estudante.
Turning me into a student.
Que remédio? Obedeci.
What choice did I have? I obeyed.
Há já três lustros que estudo.
I've been studying for three decades now.
Aprender, aprendi tudo,
I learned everything there is to learn
Mas tudo desaprendi.
But then I forgot it all.
Perdi o nome às Estrelas,
I forgot the names of the stars,
Aos nossos rios e aos de fora.
Of our rivers and those far away.
Confundo fauna com flora.
I confuse fauna with flora.
Atrapalham-me as parcelas.
Divisions confuse me.
Mas passo dias inteiros
But I spend whole days
A ver um rio passar.
Watching a river flow by.
Com aves e ondas do Mar
With birds and ocean waves.
Tenho amores verdadeiros.
I have true loves.
Rebrilha sempre uma Estrela
A star always shines
Por sobre o meu parapeito;
Above my windowsill;
Pois não sou eu que me deito
For I am not the one going to bed
Sem ter falado com ela.
Without having spoken to her.
Conheço mais de mil flores.
I know more than a thousand flowers.
Elas conhecem-me a mim.
They also know me.
Só não sei como em latim
I just don't know how in Latin
As crismaram os doutores.
The experts christened them.
No entanto sou promovido,
Yet I'm still promoted
Mal haja lugar aberto,
As soon as a spot opens up,
A mestre: julgam-me esperto,
To a master: they consider me clever,
Inteligente e sabido.
Intelligent and knowledgeable.
O pior é se um director
The worst is if a school principal
Espreita p'la fechadura:
Peeks through the keyhole:
Lá se vai licenciatura
There goes my college degree
Se ouve as lições do doutor.
If he overhears the lessons from the teacher.
Lá se vai o ordenado
There goes my salary
De tuta-e-meia por mês.
Of barely anything per month.
Lá fico eu de uma vez
And then I will forever be
Um Poeta desempregado.
An unemployed poet.
Se me não lograr o fado
But if fate doesn't deceive me
Porém, com tais diretores,
Though with such principals,
E de rios, aves e flores
And with rivers, birds, and flowers
Somente for vigiado,
Only be watched
Enquanto as aulas correrem
As long as my classes are running
Não sentirei calafrios,
I won't feel any chills,
Que flores, aves e rios
For flowers, birds, and rivers
Ignorante é que me querem.
Want me to remain ignorant.
Contributed by Declan G. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Luisa Melgarejo Cruz
¡Mi himno!
Helena Marinho
Bem haja por estas delicias! Obrigada!
Allegrini Edmond
ah! le..portugal, ancien.. la guttare portugaise n ´est pas une viole.. ella douzes cordes.. et quel son!!
lopesdareosa
Num são douze ! - São doze!