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.
Sei Finalmente
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Que não sou, infelizmente, aquela de quem tu gostas
Oh, meu amor, fala-me toda a verdade
Seja qual for, peço-te eu, por caridade
Tem compaixão desta dor, tem dó de mim
Eu vi um sim onde os outros viram não
E a minha luz, só tu foste, mais ninguém
A minha cruz pode ser o teu desdém
Que me digam não ser já a mulher do teu ideal
Oh, meu amor, que à minha alma te encostas
Diz o que for, peço-te eu de mãos postas
In Amália Rodrigues's song "Sei Finalmente", the singer expresses her realization that others are affirming or placing bets on her not being the one whom her lover desires. She implores her lover to speak the truth, whatever it may be, out of compassion for her pain. She acknowledges that she saw a positive response where others did not and that her light only belonged to her lover. She accepts that her situation may be viewed with disdain, but it does not matter to her as long as her lover is truthful about their feelings. She ends by pleading to her lover with open hands.
The song speaks to the insecurity and vulnerability that can come with loving someone who may not reciprocate those feelings. The singer confronts this reality and asks for the truth, no matter how painful it may be. She is resigned to the fact that her love may not be returned, but she cannot bear to live in uncertainty and needs closure. There is a sense of desperation in her plea for compassion and honesty.
Line by Line Meaning
Sei finalmente que afirma ou fazem apostas
I finally know what people are saying or betting about me
Que não sou, infelizmente, aquela de quem tu gostas
Unfortunately, I am not the one you love
Oh, meu amor, fala-me toda a verdade
Oh, my love, tell me the whole truth
Seja qual for, peço-te eu, por caridade
Whatever it is, I beg of you, for kindness’ sake
Tem compaixão desta dor, tem dó de mim
Have compassion for this pain, pity me
Eu vi um sim onde os outros viram não
I saw a yes where others saw a no
E a minha luz, só tu foste, mais ninguém
And my light, only you were it, no one else
A minha cruz pode ser o teu desdém
My cross may be your disdain
Não se me dá que se riam por meu fado
I don't care if they laugh at my fate
Que me digam não ser já a mulher do teu ideal
If they say I am no longer the woman of your dreams
Oh, meu amor, que à minha alma te encostas
Oh, my love, who is close to my soul
Diz o que for, peço-te eu de mãos postas
Say whatever it is, I ask of you with folded hands
Writer(s): armando freire armandinho, linhares barbosa, armandinho, joao linhares barbosa
Contributed by Jason M. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
alicia Diaz
sei finalmente.....que delicadisima voz da rainha do fado....cuando cantaba iste fado Amalia era muito Nova.....inesquecivel a rainha do fado
Alexandre Meireles
Lindo! Lindo! Lindo! Grande Amália! Imortal.
Ana Rodrigues
Muito lindo este Fado! Adoro ouvi-lo pela Deusa! ❤👏👏🎼
Regina Amorim
Bravo.!
antonio nunes
João linhares Barbosa, grande poeta, muito amado no meio fadista.
Alicia Diaz
é uma cotovia.
Ana Rodrigues
Aqui diz que a mísica é de Armando Freire (Armandinho) mas este Fado está cantado por vários Fadistas como sendo de Jaime Santos. O Tony de Matos também o canta e diz lá que a música é de Jaime Santos. Alguém me tire esta dúvida ???
fadomeu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV0PN2HpErE
fadomeu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5Q-g4xfbdg
fadomeu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSc-FYs4b8I