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Fado - The Soul of Portugal

It is an emotional musical style, full of passion, pain, sorrow, and jealousy, but at the same time fado is distinguished by its ability to unite unbearable pain with sparkling joie de vivre, the cruelty of life with the power of love.

Before travelling to Portugal I wanted to begin getting to know this country and its culture from afar. And that is how I encountered fado.

Fado - this is the music of the black veils of Portuguese sailors' wives, the music of Lisbon's white Tower of Belém, which sounds along the banks of the Tagus as it sees the sailors and fishermen off and welcomes them home. It is music in which the sadness of parting and the joy of a long-awaited reunion merge - just as in one of the songs: "all this happens, all this is sorrowful, all this is fado".

The name fado comes from the Latin "fatum" - fate. The fuller name is fado saudade, where "saudade" means the sadness, the yearning that can be heard in this music. It comes from the people, from the city, from the poor quarters where all the weary people gathered with their broken and tormented lives, with their pain. In fado singing, the text carries great importance. The lyrics are often like balladic narratives, prayers, elegies, lamentations - a musical account of one's own life and pain. Fado's destiny is similar to that of the blues, which arose among ordinary people, was perceived as the expression of "lowly" folk, but has now become popular throughout the world.

Portuguese guitar

In one word it describes a style of singing, content, and mood accompanied by a 12-string guitar. Fado is the condition of a wounded soul. It is pain, unfulfilled dreams, the trauma of a lost homeland, unfortunate or unlived love... Although two types of fado are always distinguished - Lisbon and Coimbra fado - they are nonetheless very similar. Lisbon fado is more connected with the sea - with those who have departed and those who remain, where nostalgia and sailors' longing for home alternates with the weeping of wives over lost love and orphans. Coimbra, as a renowned university city, is characterised by student fado, which students sing mostly during youth festivals.

Mariza's house in Lisbon

A fragment from the Latvian translation of the anthology of contemporary Portuguese poetry, from the poetry of Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, which resonates with the yearning of fado singing:

You will go to the court, you will go to petition,
to have your pension paid at the appointed time.
This land slays you slowly.
The land you invoke that does not answer you.
The land you founded that does not rise up.
In your ruin conspired against you both slander
and hatred along with envy's sharp edge,
there has never been a shortage of enemies for one who dared to be oneself...

The most famous fado singers - Amália Rodrigues, Mísia, Mariza.

Mariza

Fado is the word that most vividly characterises the singer Mariza, known throughout contemporary Europe. She was born in Mozambique, but when the girl was three years old, the family moved to her father's homeland, Portugal. It was there that she first heard fado. In Portugal, fado is what tango is in Argentina and flamenco in Andalusia - music rooted deep in the soul of the people's fate.

"It is an emotional musical style, full of passion, pain, sorrow, and jealousy, but at the same time fado is distinguished by its ability to unite unbearable pain with sparkling joie de vivre, the cruelty of life with the power of love," says Mariza herself.

At the 2002 Quebec Summer Festival, Mariza received the award for the most brilliant performance, and in 2003 she was recognised as Person of the Year in Portugal for carrying the country's name and culture out into the world through its most characteristic art - fado.

Mariza

Mariza's Most Beautiful Fado Songs:

Nasceu de ser Português
Fez-se à vida pelo mundo
Foi p'lo sonho vagabundo
Foi pela terra abraçado
Bem querido ou mal amado
O Fado
Viveu de ser Português
Foi alegre e foi gingão
Por ser um fado é canção
Por ser futuro é passado
Mal querido ou bem amado
O Fado
Cada vez mais Português
Anda nas asas do vento
Às vezes solta um lamento
E pede p'ra ser achado
Ele é querido, ele é amado
O Fado