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.
Quisera Lavar o Pensamento
Cristina Branco Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Em tudo vejo aquilo que não presta
Uma saudade atrás doutra saudade
Porque a saudade é tudo que me resta
E quando me convenço que estou morta
Ela me faz viver mais outro dia
Corre-me o sangue ainda gota a gota
Como a água do mar lava as areias
Eu quisera lavar o pensamento
Escorrer de mim o sangue dessas veias
E vazia partir atrás do vento
The lyrics of Cristina Branco's song Quisera Lavar o Pensamento are deeply introspective and explore themes of anxiety, fear, and overwhelming sadness. The opening lines of the song describe the singer as being made up entirely of these negative emotions, unable to see anything positive in the world around them. They are constantly haunted by memories of the past, represented here by an unending chain of saudades, the Portuguese word for a feeling of longing or nostalgia.
Despite feeling like they are already dead, the singer finds themselves drawn back to life again and again by their saudade. It is an excruciating existence, with their pain and suffering slowly draining them away, drop by drop. The second half of the song shifts focus to the desire for release from this endless cycle of sorrow. The singer longs to be cleansed of their negative thoughts and feelings, using the metaphor of the ocean washing away sand to describe their wish to cleanse their mind. They want to shed themselves of the painful memories that plague them and be empty like the wind, free of the weight of their emotions.
Line by Line Meaning
Sou feita de temor e ansiedade
I am built out of fear and anxiety
Em tudo vejo aquilo que não presta
I see only what is not good in everything
Uma saudade atrás doutra saudade
One nostalgia after another nostalgia
Porque a saudade é tudo que me resta
Because nostalgia is all that is left for me
E quando me convenço que estou morta
And when I convince myself that I am dead
Ela me faz viver mais outro dia
It makes me live another day
Corre-me o sangue ainda gota a gota
My blood still runs drop by drop
Para tornar maior esta agonia
To make this agony even greater
Como a água do mar lava as areias
Like the sea water washes away the sand
Eu quisera lavar o pensamento
I wish to wash away my thoughts
Escorrer de mim o sangue dessas veias
Drain the blood from my veins
E vazia partir atrás do vento
And depart empty behind the wind
Contributed by Jayden A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.