Fado: Portugals Melancholic Musical Tradition

Across the world, fado is a musical symbol of Portuguese culture and tradition. This melancholic genre, which translates to “fate” in Latin, reveals the passion in the Portuguese disposition, and evokes a despairing belief in a futile destiny filled with pining and hopelessness.

Each region in Portugal has a musical style and fado, in particular, started in Lisbon although it soon diverged into differing forms in Porto and Coimbra. Due to its emergence in the early 19th century during a time of diverse cultural encounters, there are many projections about the birth of fado. Some say it came with African slaves and was adapted from a West African dance in Brazil while others believe that it was developed from a song of lament by Portuguese seafarers or was developed during the Moorish occupation of Portugal.

One of the earliest manifestations of fado was in a song depicting the forbidden love story between a gypsy woman by the name of Maria Severe, and Count de Vimioso, a man of nobility. Entrenched in the hopelessness of their love, as Chris Da Rosa of Vanguard Squad states, ‘Maria would find comfort in belting out her sorrows in the bars and clubs of Lisbon’s Barrio Alto, while strumming along on her guitarra Portuguesa (a twelve-string mandolin-like instrument, possibly of Moorish origin)’. This story was depicted in Portugal’s first all talking sound film, A Severa.

Although there are many fadistas (fado musicians) such as Judith and Holofernes, Max, Carlos Ramos and Celeste Rodrigues, Dulce Pontes, Mariza, and Katia Guerreiro it was Amalia Rodrigues (1920 – 1999), previously known as the ‘Rainha do Fado’ (Queen of Fado), who initially pushed the genre’s boundaries, helping to develop and define it into what it is today. Rodrigues travelled the world performing and recording. Portugal mourned for three days after her death and, as one of the nation’s signature icons she was buried in the National Pantheon in Lisbon. The new Queen of Fado is Mariza; a multiple Grammy nominee and a winner of the BBC Best European Act award, she represents a contemporary interpretation of this old musical tradition, and has performed on the David Letterman Show.
Watch the video below to see Mariza on the David Letterman Show:

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