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.
Uma Casa Portuguesa
Amália Rodrigues Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Pão e vinho sobre a mesa
E se à porta humildemente bate alguém
Senta-se à mesa com a gente
Fica bem essa franqueza fica bem
Que o povo nunca a desmente
A alegria da pobreza
Está nesta grande riqueza
Quatro paredes caiadas
Um cheirinho à alecrim
Um cacho de uvas doiradas
Duas rosas num jardim
Um São José de azulejo
Mais o Sol da primavera
Uma promessa de beijos
Dois braços à minha espera
É uma casa portuguesa com certeza
Lá é com certeza uma casa portuguesa
No conforto pobrezinho do meu lar
Há fartura de carinho
E a cortina da janela e o luar
Mais o sol que bate nela
Basta pouco poucochinho pra alegrar
Uma existência singela
É só amor pão e vinho
E um caldo verde verdinho
A fumegar na tigela
Quatro paredes caiadas
Um cheirinho à alecrim
Um cacho de uvas doiradas
Duas rosas num jardim
Um São José de azulejo
Mais o Sol da primavera
Uma promessa de beijos
Dois braços à minha espera
É uma casa portuguesa com certeza
É com certeza uma casa portuguesa
É uma casa portuguesa com certeza
É com certeza uma casa portuguesa
Amália Rodrigues's song Uma Casa Portuguesa paints a picture of a traditional Portuguese home with its warmth, hospitality, and modesty. The first verse talks about how it is customary to have bread and wine on the table, and how the people invite someone in humbly, without any hesitation. The weakness of being hospitable is a valued aspect of the Portuguese culture, one that the people never deny. The second verse highlights what makes a Portuguese house charming: white walls, the scent of rosemary, a bunch of golden grapes, two roses in a garden, a blue tile of St. Joseph, the freshness of spring, and the promise of love. The chorus affirms that this is, without a doubt, a Portuguese house.
The third verse amplifies the humble abundance that can be found in a Portuguese home. The curtain on the window may be the only barrier between the family and the moonlight or sunlight. The passage uncovers the simplicity of the lifestyle, where little is required to bring happiness. Love, bread, wine, and a bowl of green soup, all create warm memories. The chorus repeats, emphasizing the simple joys of Portugal.
Line by Line Meaning
Numa casa portuguesa fica bem
In a Portuguese house, it is fitting
Pão e vinho sobre a mesa
Bread and wine on the table
E se à porta humildemente bate alguém
And if someone humbly knocks on the door
Senta-se à mesa com a gente
They sit at the table with us
Fica bem essa fraqueza fica bem
That weakness is fitting, it is fitting
Que o povo nunca a desmente
As the people never deny it
A alegria da pobreza
The joy of poverty
Está nesta grande riqueza
Is in this great wealth
De dar e ficar contente
Of giving and being content
Quatro paredes caiadas
Four whitewashed walls
Um cheirinho à alecrim
The smell of rosemary
Um cacho de uvas doiradas
A bunch of golden grapes
Duas rosas num jardim
Two roses in a garden
Um São José de azulejo
A tile depiction of Saint Joseph
Mais o sol da primavera
Plus the spring sunshine
Uma promessa de beijos
A promise of kisses
Dois braços à minha espera
Two arms waiting for me
É uma casa portuguesa com certeza
It is a Portuguese house, certainly
No conforto pobrezinho do meu lar
In the humble comfort of my home
Há fartura de carinho
There is an abundance of affection
A cortina da janela e o luar
The window curtain and the moonlight
Mais o sol que bate nela
Plus the sun shining on it
Basta pouco poucochinho pra alegrar
Just a little is enough to bring joy
Uma existência singela
A simple existence
É só amor pão e vinho
It's just love, bread, and wine
E um caldo verde verdinho
And a nice, green soup
A fumegar na tijela
Steaming in the bowl
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Written by: Arthur Vaz Da Fonseca, Reinaldo Ferreira, Vasco De Matos Sequeira
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind