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.
O Meu Portugal
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
E o nosso é nosso quando posso
Dizer que um dente nos cresceu
Roendo o mal até ao osso
O teu é nosso o nosso é teu
O nosso é meu o meu é nosso
E tudo o mais que aconteceu
É uma amêndoa sem caroço
Dizem que sou dizem que faço
Que tenho braços e pescoco
- que é da cabeça que desfaço
Que é dos poemas que eu não ouço?
O meu é teu o teu é meu
E o nosso, nosso quando posso
Olhar de frente para o céu
E sem o ver galgar o fosso
Mas to és tu e eu sou eu
Não vejo o fundo ao nosso poço
O meu é meu dá-me o que é teu
Depois veremos o que é nosso
The lyrics of Amália Rodrigues's song "O Meu Portugal" convey a sense of unity, collective ownership, and shared struggles. The repetition of phrases like "O meu é teu o teu é meu" (Mine is yours, yours is mine) and "O nosso é nosso quando posso" (Ours is ours when I can) highlights the theme of communal responsibility and the idea that progress can only be achieved through collaboration and solidarity.
The lyrics also touch upon the notion of resilience and perseverance in the face of adversity. The line "Dizer que um dente nos cresceu, Roendo o mal até ao osso" (To say that a tooth grew in us, gnawing evil down to the bone) suggests that despite facing challenges, the Portuguese people have remained steadfast and have not allowed hardship to diminish their spirit.
Amália also contemplates the criticism she receives and questions the value others place on her actions and creativity. She questions whether it is her head or her poems that are unworthy, indicating a sense of self-doubt and the external scrutiny faced by artists. However, she asserts her individuality and autonomy, stating that "O meu é meu dá-me o que é teu, Depois veremos o que é nosso" (What is mine is mine, give me what is yours, then we will see what is ours).
Overall, "O Meu Portugal" is a celebration of unity, resilience, and the collective strength of the Portuguese people, while also exploring themes of individuality and creative expression.
Line by Line Meaning
O meu é teu o teu é meu
What is mine is yours and what is yours is mine
E o nosso é nosso quando posso
And what is ours is truly ours when I can
Dizer que um dente nos cresceu
To say that a tooth has grown for us
Roendo o mal até ao osso
Biting evil down to the bone
O teu é nosso o nosso é teu
What is yours is ours, what is ours is yours
O nosso é meu o meu é nosso
What is ours is mine, what is mine is ours
E tudo o mais que aconteceu
And everything else that has happened
É uma amêndoa sem caroço
Is a seedless almond
Dizem que sou dizem que faço
They say that I am, they say that I do
Que tenho braços e pescoço
That I have arms and neck
- que é da cabeça que desfaço
- it is from my head that I unravel
Que é dos poemas que eu não ouço?
What about the poems that I do not hear?
Olhar de frente para o céu
Look straight at the sky
E sem o ver galgar o fosso
And without seeing it leap over the ditch
Mas to és tu e eu sou eu
But you are you and I am me
Não vejo o fundo ao nosso poço
I do not see the bottom of our well
O meu é meu dá-me o que é teu
What is mine is mine, give me what is yours
Depois veremos o que é nosso
Then we will see what is ours
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: LUIZ MENDES JUNIOR, LINCOLN OLIVETTI MOREIRA, ROBSON JORGE, CLAUDIA OLIVETTI
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
ji ji
O Fado nasceu um dia
Quando o vento mal bulia
E o céu o mar prolongava
Na amurada dum veleiro
No peito de um marinheiro
Que estando triste cantava
Que estando triste cantava
Ai que lindeza tamanha
Meu chão, meu monte, meu vale
De folhas flores frutas de oiro
Vê se vês terras de Espanha
Areias de Portugal
Olhar ceguinho de choro
Na boca de um marinheiro
Do frágil barco veleiro
Morrendo a canção magoada
Diz o pungir dos desejos
Do lábio a queimar de beijos
Que beija o ar e mais nada
Que beija o ar e mais nada
Mãe adeus, adeus Maria
Guarda bem no teu sentido
Que aqui te faço uma jura
Que ou te levo à sacristia
Ou foi Deus que foi servido
Dar-me no mar sepultura
Ora eis que embora outro dia
Quando o vento nem bulia
E o céu o mar prolongava
À proa de outro veleiro
Velava outro marinheiro
Que estando triste cantava
Que estando triste cantava
Ai que lindeza tamanha
Meu chão, meu monte, meu vale
De folhas flores frutas de oiro
Vê se vês terras de Espanha
Areias de Portugal
Olhar ceguinho de choro
yikes
[*TRANSLATION*]
*Fado was born one day,
When the wind barely stirred,
And the skies elongated the sea.
On the bulwark of a sailing ship,
In the chest of a seaman
That, being sorrowful, sang.
That, being sorrowful, sang.
Oh, what immense beauty,
My land, my hill, my valley
Of golden leaves, flowers and fruits
Try to spot lands of Spain,
Sands of Portugal,
Vision blinded by tears.
In the mouth of a seaman
In the fragile sailing ship
Singing the hurtful song
Says the piercing of desires
From the lips burning with kisses
That kiss the air and nothing else,
That kiss the air and nothing else.
Mother, farewell, farewell Maria,
Keep this well in your mind,
That hereby I make you this vow:
Either I will take you to the sacristy,
Or it was God who was served
Giving me my rest at sea
Now, on another given day
When the wind didn't even stir
And the skies elongated the sea.
At the bow of another sailing ship
Another seaman sailed
That, being sorrowful, sang.
That, being sorrowful, sang.
Oh, what immense beauty,
My land, my hill, my valley
Of golden leaves, flowers and fruits
Try to spot lands of Spain,
Sands of Portugal,
Vision blinded by tears.*
Nadia Khristova
Sou russa de São Petersburgo e quando visitei Portugal pela primeira vez fui no teatro Politeama e assisti um espetáculo chamado "Uma noite na casa de Amália". Assim conheci a grande Amália Rodrigues. Depois, na outra visita conheci a casa-museu da Amália em Lisboa. É agora sou professora de português na Rússia e ensino esta língua e cultura que me fascina! ⚘
Vagner Mardegan
👍🇨🇨
Pierre Chazal
@Nadia Khristova Super ! Une romaniste donc ! Autrefois les Russes parlaient beaucoup le français, mais ça, "c'était avant"... Voir notamment la description de la haute société russe dans "Guerre et paix" de Tolstoï. Je suppose que les jeunes actuels apprennent surtout l'anglais
Nadia Khristova
@Pierre Chazal Merci Pierre, je apprend le français maintenant !
Pierre Chazal
Felicitades pel seu português !
Herculano Junior
Sou brasileiro e cidadão portugues, fã de Amalia. Canto suas musicas, em particular o Fado Portugues. E prazer ouvir gente da Russia . Eu assino o Pravda pra ter visão da Russia.
Rosa
Sou Brasileira mas meu paizinho e meus avós, eram portugueses..O Fado sempre me emociona. Não conheço Portugal mas tenho um sonho de conhecer.
Mary f Ferreira
Precisa vir, conhecer e visitar os lugares que ainda tocam o fado.. São poucos!
navarro dimitre
É vai pra esse país infeliz ser maltrada vai
Denise Debenedictis
My great grand parents were from azoren ancestors