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.
Primavera
Cristina Branco Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Como se fôra de cera
Se quebrava e desfazia;
Ai funesta primavera
Quem me dera, quem nos dera
Ter morrido nesse dia
E condenaram-me a tanto
Viver comigo o meu pranto
Viver, viver e sem ti
Vivendo, sem no entanto
Eu me esquecer desse encanto
Que nesse dia perdi
Pão duro da solidão
É somente o que me dão
O que me dão a comer
Que importa que o coração
Diga que sim ou que não
Se continua a viver
Todo o amor que nos prendera
Se quebrara e desfizera
Em pavor se convertia
Ninguém fale em primavera
Quem me dera, quem nos dera
Ter morrido nesse dia
The lyrics of Cristina Branco's song Primavera are about lost love and the pain and longing it causes. The singer laments the fact that the love that once bound her and her lover together has now melted away like wax and shattered like glass, leaving her with nothing but memories and heartache. She describes the spring season as "funesta," or baleful, suggesting that the renewed growth and warmth of the natural world only serve to remind her of what she has lost. In fact, she says that she would have preferred to die on that fateful day when her love was lost rather than have to continue living with the constant pain and anguish.
The singer also expresses a sense of isolation and loneliness, as she is now forced to live with her own sorrow and without her lover. She talks about how she is only given "pão duro da solidão," or the hard bread of solitude, as sustenance. Her heart may still be alive and feeling emotions, but it doesn't matter because she is forced to continue living without the person she loved. Despite the way her life has changed, however, she still longs for that lost love, and wishes that she and her ex-lover had died together on that spring day.
Line by Line Meaning
Todo o amor que nos prendera
All the love that held us together
Como se fôra de cera
Like it was made of wax
Se quebrava e desfazia;
It broke and fell apart
Ai funesta primavera
Oh, cursed spring
Quem me dera, quem nos dera
I wish, oh how I wish
Ter morrido nesse dia
That we had died on that day
E condenaram-me a tanto
And they sentenced me to this
Viver comigo o meu pranto
To live with my own tears
Viver, viver e sem ti
To live, to live without you
Vivendo, sem no entanto
Living, yet without
Eu me esquecer desse encanto
Being able to forget that charm
Que nesse dia perdi
That I lost on that day
Pão duro da solidão
The hard bread of loneliness
É somente o que me dão
It's all they give me
O que me dão a comer
What they give me to eat
Que importa que o coração
What does it matter that my heart
Diga que sim ou que não
Says yes or no
Se continua a viver
As it continues to beat
Todo o amor que nos prendera
All the love that held us together
Se quebrara e desfizera
It broke and fell apart
Em pavor se convertia
It turned into dread
Ninguém fale em primavera
No one speak of spring
Quem me dera, quem nos dera
I wish, oh how I wish
Ter morrido nesse dia
That we had died on that day
Contributed by Nathan J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
François Redhon
Jose Afonso, tout simplement ... l'original est bien mieux.