Cristina Branco was born in December, 1972, in Almeirim, Ribatejo, Portugal… Read Full Bio ↴Cristina Branco was born in December, 1972, in Almeirim, Ribatejo, Portugal, where she still lives. Her music is deeply rooted in tradition, yet essentially modern.

She grew up far from the fado houses of Lisbon and nothing suggested that she was predestined for the fado. Like almost all young Portuguese born after the revolution of 1974, she was interested in folk music, jazz, blues, bossa nova but not in fado. She regarded it as a genre for a different generation. This lasted until her 18th birthday, when her grandfather gave her the album Rara e Inédita by Amália Rodrigues. Suddenly, Cristina Branco discovered all the emotions that the genre could offer in the close connections that arose among voice, poetry and music. The amateur singer - then studying communication sciences and still full of her ambition to become a journalist - began to develop her vocal technique and to take her new vocation seriously.
After that, Cristina studied the poems from which major fado lyrics are taken.
Since then, Cristina has worked on her fado repertory, accompanied by Custódio Castelo on guitar and as composer.

Halfway through the nineties, other young musicians also found a new means of expression in the fado and this contributed to a surprising renaissance. Just as they did, Cristina Branco began to make clear choices in which respect for the tradition went hand in hand with the desire for renewal.
There can be no doubt that Cristina Branco is developing her own style from a number of primary components. She employs a traditional group (voice, Portuguese guitar, guitar and bass guitar) and offers us concurrently a light, warm and experienced voice; she mixes the traditional fado with themes and folk songs that are personal favourites and seems always to choose the words of the best Portuguese, or even Dutch poets with discretion.

Corpo Iluminado
Cristina Branco Lyrics

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De que túnel de que árvore
De que zero de remorso
De que rasura do vento
De que núpcias de mármore
De que fresta de que pórtico
Saíste neste momento

Para que praia que porto

Que fugitiva garupa
Que torre desconhecida
Que mãos que braços que rosto
Que tempestade difusa
Te encontras já de partida

Não és de nenhum sossego
Vives no gume do ser
Na fronteira do devir
E assim me tornas eu mesma

Entre nascer e morrer
Entre chegar e partir

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Cristina Branco's "Corpo Iluminado" explore themes of identity and navigation through the unknown, expressed through a series of questions about where the subject has come from and where they are going. The verses are each made up of a series of questions about the subject's journey, asking where they have come from, what places they have visited, and what they have encountered along the way. The repetition of these questions builds a sense of confusion and disorientation, as the subject seems to have come from multiple places and is headed in different directions simultaneously.

The chorus provides a sort of resolution to this confusion, suggesting that the subject exists in a constant state of flux between life and death and arrival and departure, and that this is what makes them who they are. "Não és de nenhum sossego" ("You are of no tranquility") signifies a lack of stability, while "Vives no gume do ser" ("You live on the edge of being") suggests a life lived on the brink, always close to falling into the unknown. The chorus implies that this constant state of transformation is what gives the subject their "iluminado" or "enlightened" body, which could be interpreted as a metaphor for an enlightened state of mind achieved through navigating life's uncertainties.

Overall, "Corpo Iluminado" explores the idea of personal evolution through the unknown, and suggests that embracing these moments of uncertainty and transformation is what illuminates the self.

Line by Line Meaning

De que túnel de que árvore
From which tunnel, from which tree

De que zero de remorso
From which lack of remorse

De que rasura do vento
From which shaving of the wind

De que núpcias de mármore
From which marble wedding

De que fresta de que pórtico
From which crack in which portal

Saíste neste momento
You came out right now

Para que praia que porto
To what beach, to what port

Que fugitiva garupa
What fleeting horseback ride

Que torre desconhecida
What unknown tower

Que mãos que braços que rosto
What hands, what arms, what face

Que tempestade difusa
What diffuse storm