Ana Moura has become a leading exponent of this poetic, deeply expressive idiom which personifies the Portuguese psyche as it explores such universal themes as lost love, separation, and longing.
As Ana explains, "It's very special because it's all about emotions and feelings. It needs no translation."
Ana was born in 1980, in Santarém, the bustling capital of the Ribatejo province in the center of Portugal's heartland on the Tejo River northeast of Lisbon.
The city of half a million souls is also one of Portugal's most historic cities -- an ideal place to develop an appreciation for fado. "I've been singing fado since I was little, because grew up listening to it at home," she recalls of her early home life. "My parents sang well, and at family gatherings, we all would sing."
Like young people everywhere, she soon developed an appreciation for other styles of music. The lure of singing fado, however, never waned. In her late teens, while sing pop and rock music with a local band, Ana always included at least one fado in each performance. Then, one night on a whim, about five years ago, she and some friends went to one of Lisbon's storied fado houses -- small performance venues where singers, guitarists and aficionados gather to worship the affecting style that's become Portugal's most important music export.
At the urging of her companions, she sang. "People liked me," she recalls of her first foray into a venerated bastion of the fado culture. Later that year, at a Christmas party that was attended by a lot of fadistas (fado singers) and guitarists, she sang again and, as fate would have it, noted fado vocalist Maria de Fe was in the audience and was duly impressed. "She asked me to sing at her fado house," Ana recalls of the fortuitous moment that launched her career.
"My life changed when I began going to the fado houses," Ana states today. "There's no microphone -- it's very intimate. New singers learn through a kind of apprenticeship, learning the intricacies of the style from the older, more established singers."
Before long, word of Ana's rich contralto, stunning looks and innate affinity for the demanding style spread, winning airtime on local television programs devoted to fado and rave reviews in Lisbon newspapers.
Ana has emerged as a leading voice of traditional fado just as the venerable idiom is enjoying a renaissance of popularity. "Today," she explains, "there's a new generation that sings lyrics related to our time. There are some older fado songs that we, the younger singers, cannot perform, because the lyrics are about a time and themes we don't identify with. We don't feel it, and fado is all about feelings. We must feel what we sing, and there are many older fados that don't belong to our generation. Younger singers use lyrics that speak of today, so young people have begun to get more interested in the music again."
As with jazz and country music in the U.S., tango in Argentina, samba in Brazil, fado sprang from the culture of working class people. And, as with the aforementioned examples, over the years the style evolved from humble origins to win broad appeal. Today, as Ana proudly proclaims, "In Portugal, fado is for everyone."
Like virtually every aspiring fadista, Ana drew early inspiration from the example of Amalia Rodrigues, the revered singer who most personified the style. "It was her soul and her voice," she comments of the late vocalist's singular imprint on the music. "She had everything in her. Some singers have a great voice by no soul, no intensity. Others have feeling but not a suitable voice. She had it all, and, she was a very good improviser."
Improvising is an under-appreciated part of the fado tradition. One technique, which Ana uses to great effect on the song "Lavava no rio lavava" (I Went to the River to Wash), is what the Portuguese term vocalisos -- the expression of words and effects through use of vocal trills. The practice is believed to have been absorbed over centuries of exposure to Spanish flamenco and Moorish styles.
A key track from her album exquisitely sums up the magnetic pull fado has exerted on Ana. "Sou do fado, sou fadista" (I belong to fado, I am a fadista) by her mentor and primary collaborator, guitarist Jorge Fernando, eloquently explains Ana's total surrender to the style:
"I know my soul has surrendered, taken my voice in hand, twisted in my chest and shown it to the world. And I have closed my eyes in a wistful longing to sing, to sing. And a voice sings to me softly, and a voice enchants me softly, I belong to fado, I belong to fado, I am a fadista."
Today, Ana Moura still thinks of how and where it all began, and of the importance of keeping those vital ties alive. "Before," she muses, "I used to sing in the fado house every day. Today, because of my concert schedule and travel, it's impossible. But, when time permits, I like to return. Sometimes I feel that I must go there. I need that."
(Adapted from a text by Cindy Byram)
Ó Meu Amigo João
Ana Moura Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Em que terras te perdeste
Se por nada lá morreste
Meu amigo, meu irmão
De nascença duvidosa / Proíbiram a tua infãncia
Transformaram-te em distãncia / Como braços de alcançar
E o teu sangue foi semente / Dos cifrões doutro lugar
Gostavas de ouvir cantar / As modas da nossa terra
E a verdade que ela encerra / No seu jeito popular
Teu corpo de tudo dar / Corre nas veias do mundo
Imenso, fértil, fecundo / Com força de terra e mar
Ponho em ti o recordar / Na agrura da tua morte
Por sobre o sangue a gritar / Que não foi azar nem sorte
E a força do vento norte / Levou teu grito na mão
Meu amigo, meu irmão / Quem forçou a tua sorte
The lyrics of Ana Moura's song Ó Meu Amigo João seem to be addressing a friend who has been lost, possibly to death or to a new place far away. The opening lines ask where this friend, João, has gone and questions the circumstances of his departure. The singer refers to João as both a friend and a brother, indicating a deep connection between them. The second stanza reveals that João's birth was uncertain and that his childhood was forbidden, causing him to be separated from his community. He became a distant figure, someone hard to reach, and his life was swept away like a floating leaf in a river. Despite this, his blood was a seed that planted itself in a different place and grew into something else. The third stanza touches on João's love for the music of their homeland and the deep truth it conveys through its folksy charms. João's body, speaks of a life full of generosity and abundance that spreads to all corners of the world, carried on by the fury of the wind on the shores of the North. The final stanza ruminates on João's untimely death and the injustice of fate that took him away. The singer asserts that João's voice was not silenced by chance or luck, but rather by the cruelties of life.
Overall, the lyrics of the song seem to be a tribute to a friend who may have passed away or left under difficult circumstances. The verses depict João as a beloved figure whose spirit lives on beyond his own death. The message of the song seems to be rooted in grief and acceptance, with the singer acknowledging the aspects of life that are cruel and unfair while also celebrating the ways in which our connections with others can transcend death and separation.
Line by Line Meaning
Ó meu amigo João
Oh my friend João
Em que terras te perdeste
In what lands did you get lost
Se por nada lá morreste
If you died there for nothing
Meu amigo, meu irmão
My friend, my brother
De nascença duvidosa
Of dubious birth
Proíbiram a tua infãncia
They prohibited your childhood
Transformaram-te em distãncia
They turned you into distance
Como braços de alcançar
Like arms to reach for
Foste folha a flutuar
You were a leaf floating
Arrastada p'la corrente
Carried away by the current
E o teu sangue foi semente
And your blood was a seed
Dos cifrões doutro lugar
Of coins from another place
Gostavas de ouvir cantar
You liked to hear the singing
As modas da nossa terra
The style of our land
E a verdade que ela encerra
And the truth that it holds
No seu jeito popular
In its popular way
Teu corpo de tudo dar
Your body giving everything
Corre nas veias do mundo
Flows in the veins of the world
Imenso, fértil, fecundo
Immense, fertile, prolific
Com força de terra e mar
With the strength of land and sea
Ponho em ti o recordar
I place in you the memory
Na agrura da tua morte
In the bitterness of your death
Por sobre o sangue a gritar
Above the blood screaming
Que não foi azar nem sorte
That it was not by chance or luck
E a força do vento norte
And the strength of the northern wind
Levou teu grito na mão
Carried your shout in its hand
Meu amigo, meu irmão
My friend, my brother
Quem forçou a tua sorte
Who forced your fate
Contributed by Lucy N. Suggest a correction in the comments below.