Alentejo Regional Choirs
Alentejo has some of the most authentic choirs in Portugal. Groups of only man and less common only women, their chant is recognized all aver the country for its simplicity and beauty.
Artist: Carlos do Carmo
The son of fado singer and nightclub owner, Lucilia Do Carmo, Carlos Do Carmo (born: Carlos Manuel de Ascencao Almeida) has established his own reputation as a passionate singer of Portuguese folk songs.
Although he dreamed of joining the merchant marines, becoming a lawyer and managing a hotel in Switzerland, Do Carmo joined his mother to run her club, the Adega De Lucilia, later renamed the Faia, following his father’s death in 1962.
Encouraged by his friends’ response to his singing, Do Carmo soon began to perform at the club. While fado remains at the core of his music, Do Carmo has used Frank Sinatra-style pop balladry and Brazilian bossa nova to give his music its distinct flavor. His hits include “Barro Alto/High Quarter”, “Gaivota/Gull”, “Canoas Do Tejo/Tagus Canoes”, “Os Putos/The Putos”, “Lisboa Menina/Lisbon Girl”, and Estrela Da Tarde/Star Of The Afternoon”.
His untraditional kind of fado has gained him the hanger of ones and the respect of others. Nevertheless with time his career became one of the most well established, and his charm, charisma and correct Portuguese make him a reference of the century on the history of Portugal’s song.
Artist: Amália Rodrigues
Amália Rodrigues, (July 23, 1920 – October 6, 1999) was a Portuguese singer and actress.
She was known as the “Rainha do Fado” (”Queen of Fado”) and was most influential in popularizing the fado worldwide. She was unquestionably the most important figure in the genre’s development, by virtue of an innate interpretive talent carefully nurtured throughout a 40-year recording and stage career. Rodrigues’ performances and choice of repertoire pushed Fado’s boundaries and helped redefine it and reconfigure it for her and subsequent generations. In effect, Rodrigues wrote the rulebook on what fado could be and on how a female singer—or Fadista—should perform it, to the extent that she remains an unsurpassable model and an unending source of repertoire for all those who came afterwards.2008/10/10