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.
Primavera
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Como de fora de cera
Se quebrava e desfazia.
Ai funesta primavera,
Quem me dera, quem nos dera
Ter morrido nesse dia.
E condenaram-me a tanto,
Viver, e viver sem ti,
Vivendo sem no entanto
Eu me esquecer desses encanto
Que nesse dia perdi.
Pão-duro da solidão
é somente o que nos dão a comer.
Que importa que o coração
Diga que sim ou que não
Se continua a viver.
Todo o amor que nos prendera
Se quebrara e desfizera,
Em pavor se convertia.
Ninguém fale em primavera,
Quem me dera, quem nos dera
Ter morrido nesse dia.
The song "Primavera" by Amália Rodrigues is a mournful reflection on lost love and the pain that follows. The singer reminisces about a past relationship that was so strong, it seemed to be made of wax, only to shatter and dissolve with time. The arrival of spring, a season usually associated with renewal and new beginnings becomes a source of fear and sorrow. The singer regrets not having died on the day when love was lost, rather than living in a world without her beloved.
The song is characterized by a sense of sadness and melancholy, as the singer struggles to come to terms with the end of a relationship. The lyrics touch upon themes of time, memory, and impermanence, as the singer compares her past happiness to a fragile and fleeting moment. The conclusion is a painful acceptance of a new reality - a life without love, where the only sustenance is the "bread of loneliness".
Overall, "Primavera" is a haunting and moving song that speaks to the human experience of loss and heartbreak.
Line by Line Meaning
Todo o amor que nos prendera
All the love that held us together
Como de fora de cera
Like wax on the outside
Se quebrava e desfazia.
It broke and dissolved.
Ai funesta primavera,
Oh fatal spring,
Quem me dera, quem nos dera
I wish, we wish
Ter morrido nesse dia.
To have died on that day.
E condenaram-me a tanto,
And condemned me to so much
Viver comigo o meu pranto,
To live with my own sorrow
Viver, e viver sem ti,
To live, and live without you
Vivendo sem no entanto
Living without, however,
Eu me esquecer desses encanto
Forgetting those enchantments
Que nesse dia perdi.
That I lost on that day.
Pão-duro da solidão
The tough bread of loneliness
é somente o que nos dão a comer.
is all they give us to eat.
Que importa que o coração
What does it matter if the heart
Diga que sim ou que não
Says yes or no
Se continua a viver.
If it continues to live.
Todo o amor que nos prendera
All the love that held us together
Se quebrara e desfizera,
It broke and dissolved.
Em pavor se convertia.
Transformed into dread.
Ninguém fale em primavera,
No one talks about spring,
Quem me dera, quem nos dera
I wish, we wish
Ter morrido nesse dia.
To have died on that day.
Contributed by Dylan D. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
@flammarion66
Todo el amor que nos unió
Como si fuera de cera
Se quebraba y deshacía
Ay funesta primavera
Quien me diera, quien nos diera
Haber muerto en ese día
Y me condenaron a tanto
Vivir con mi llanto
Vivir, vivir y sin ti
Viviendo pero sin por ello
Olvidarme de ese hechizo
Que en ese día perdí
Pan duro de la soledad
Es lo único que nos dan
Lo que nos dan de comer
Qué importa que el corazón
Diga que sí o que no
Si continúa viviendo
Todo el amor que nos uniera
Se quebró y se deshizo
En miedo se convertía
Que nadie hable en primavera
Quien me diera, quien nos diera
Haber muerto en ese día
@ImMasterBates
Todo o amor que nos prendera
Como se fora de cera
Se quebrava e desfazia
Ai, funesta Primavera!
Quem me dera, quem nos dera
Ter morrido nesse dia
Ai, funesta Primavera
Quem me dera, quem nos dera
Ter morrido nesse dia
E condenaram-me a tanto
Viver comigo o meu pranto
Viver, viver e sem ti
Vivendo sem no entanto
Eu me esquecer desse encanto
Que nesse dia perdi
Vivendo sem no entanto
Eu me esquecer desse encanto
Que nesse dia perdi
Pão duro da solidão
É somente o que nos dão
O que nos dão a comer
Que importa que o coração
Diga que sim ou que não
Se continua a viver
Que importa que o coração
Diga que sim ou que não
Se continua a viver
Todo o amor que nos prendera
Se quebrara e desfizera
Em pavor se convertia
Ninguém fale em Primavera
Quem me dera, quem nos dera
Ter morrido nesse dia
Ninguém fale em Primavera
Quem me dera, quem nos dera
Ter morrido nesse dia
David Mourão Ferreira.
@sergiopereirasergiopereira5898
Obrigado Amália Rodrigues obrigado,por tudo.
@nandaalmeida1716
Obrigada Amália!
@FCom-nz3wd
Amalia... pas seulement une des plus grandes voix du XXème siècle, mais aussi une grande convoyeuse d'émotions... la plus grande pour moi
@sergiopereirasergiopereira5898
Para sempre imortal.
@tiagob8355
A maior das maiores
@josemiguelmunne2533
Con el alma portuguesa, calado hasta los huesos de recuerdos, no importa lo lejos que esté de sus calles, cada vez que escucho esta canción, viajo de nuevo en el 28…
“Funesta primavera”, ironías del destino: Cuantas veces te escuché sin adivinar cómo la verdad de tu letra me aguardaba.
@tilaclarinha8487
Grande Amália... é a mesma música do grande fado da grande Teresa Tarouca " saudade silêncio e sombra" Adoro!!!! Que descansem em paz. Fica as recordações que nunca acabarão...
@antoniaalmeida4620
Obrigada querida Amália!!! Jámais serás esquecida!!!
@luisbarrera4126
Pasan los años, y no me canso de escuchar, esta bella.voz !!!!!!!
@luisbarrera4126
Lo más ,grande de este bello género, el fado preciosa voz ,que sentimiento!!¡!!!!!