Portuguese vocalist Ana Moura, whose soulful and riveting interpretation of… Read Full Bio ↴Portuguese vocalist Ana Moura, whose soulful and riveting interpretation of her land's captivating fado style has made her a star in Europe.

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)

Lavava No Rio Lavava
Ana Moura Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Lavava no rio, lavava
Gelava-me o frio, gelava
Quando ia ao rio lavar;
Passava fome, passava
Chorava, também chorava
Ao ver minha mãe chorar

Cantava, também cantava

Sonhava, também sonhava / E na minha fantasia
Tais coisas fantasiava
Que esquecia que chorava / Que esquecia que sofria

Já não vou ao rio lavar
Mas continuo a sonhar / Já não sonho o que sonhava
Se já não lavo no rio
Porque me gela este frio / Mais do que então me gelava

Ai minha mãe, minha mãe
Que saudades desse bem / E do mal que então conhecia
Dessa fome que eu passava
Do frio que me gelava / E da minha fantasia

Já não temos fome, mãe
Mas já não temos também / O desejo de a não ter

Já não sabemos sonhar
Já andamos a enganar / O desejo de morrer

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Ana Moura's song Lavava No Rio Lavava tell a story of the singer's childhood memories of washing herself in the river, feeling the cold water and shivering, while also enduring hunger and sometimes crying. However, while washing, she would also sing and dream, allowing herself to escape her reality. These dreams were so vivid that she sometimes forgot to cry and to feel the pain. She remembers these moments with nostalgia and longing, as they remind her of her mother who, at the time, must have also struggled with the same difficulties. Today, she no longer washes in the river, but she still dreams, albeit different dreams. Although she and her family have overcome the hardships of poverty, they have also lost the desire to dream and live life fully, resigning to a mundane and unfulfilled existence.

Line by Line Meaning

Lavava no rio, lavava
I used to wash in the river

Gelava-me o frio, gelava
The cold used to freeze me

Quando ia ao rio lavar;
Whenever I went to the river to wash;

Passava fome, passava
I was hungry, I suffered

Chorava, também chorava
I cried, I also cried

Ao ver minha mãe chorar
Seeing my mother cry

Cantava, também cantava
I sang, I also sang

Sonhava, também sonhava / E na minha fantasia
I dreamed, I also dreamed / And in my fantasies

Tais coisas fantasiava
I fantasized about such things

Que esquecia que chorava / Que esquecia que sofria
That I forgot about crying / That I forgot about suffering

Já não vou ao rio lavar
I don't go to the river to wash anymore