The Queen of Fado.
- The Queen of Fado.
- Abandonment:
- The childhood of Amália Rodriguez.
- The return of their parents and the road to success:
- The dictatorship or the Communist Party.
Talking about Amália Rodriguez and talking about fado is the same, because we would be referring to one of her greatest exponents, since she recorded more than 170 albums throughout her life.
Amália Rodrigues was born on July 23 in Lisbon and had a professional career in acting and music of more than 40 years, between 1950 and 1970, and there are those who link her to the dictator's regime António of Oliveira Salazar even though there are those who claim, that it was linked to the Portuguese Communist Party to whom he gave money in hiding.
After The Carnation Revolution, she was forced to withdraw from the scenarios.
One hundred years after her birth, she is recognized as "the voice of Portugal"
Amália said in a 1967 interview – ‘I don’t know if I sing fado well, if I am chastised, if I am an artist. What I know is that there is a sincerity that I always had in singing in my way of being. I always gave everything I could give.
She was the fifth in a family of nine children. She worked from a very young age selling fruit, working in a candy factory and sewing clothes, until she began her career as a singer at the age of nineteen.
The darkest, or somber, note of Amália Rodrigues' career, or perhaps the most intriguing, is her relationship with the Portuguese dictatorship.
It is speculated with his support for the regime of the dictator António de Oliveira Salazar, of his collaborationism, since it is said that the dictatorial regime was based on three ephes, the fado, Fatima, and the family.
Journalist Miguel Carvalho, who made a detailed biography about her, argues that:
Amalia was with God and the devil. Although she had no ideological commitment to the Communists (she was conservative and Catholic), for her it was important to defend human dignity.
Carvalho tells us that Amália grew up from the age of nine in a working-class neighborhood, Alcántara, which was one of the focal points of resistance to the regime and that during her childhood, she witnessed the persecution of the enemies of the dictatorship, that is, the persecution of her neighbors, with some of whom she maintained friendly relations throughout her life.
Although his family was an admirer of Salazar and was part of a sector of Portuguese society that saw him as a savior of the country in the face of the chaos that ensued with the proclamation of the Republic, Amália could never turn her back, nor make deaf ears , to the presence of the oppressed and trampled by the dictatorship.
Undoubtedly, that contradictory, ambiguous feeling is what leads her to collaborate with the Communist Party of Portugal. Perhaps there was no ideological motive, outside the feeling of helplessness, anguish or injustice, inflicted on their loved ones.
Carvalho says: "His house in Lisbon was a center of conspiracy" Perhaps a somewhat exaggerated interpretation.
The artist also sang songs of clear political content, of persecuted poets, themes that were censored as the song Abandonment by David Mourao-Ferreira.
Abandonment:
By teu livre pensamento
Foram-te longe lock
By teu livre pensamento
Foram-te longe lock
Tão longe o meu lament
Não get you alcançar
And just ouves or vento
And just ouves or sea
Levaram-te a meio da noite
A treva tudo cobria
Levaram-te a meio da noite
A treva tudo cobria
Foi de noite numa noite
From all to the most gloomy
Foi de noite, foi de noite
And never more fez day
Ai! Dessa noite or poison
Persist em poison me
Ai! Dessa noite or poison
Persist em poison me
Oiço barely or silêncio
That ficou em teu place
Or less ouves or vento
Less ouves or sea
Or less ouves or vento
Less ouves or sea
"She always denied in public that the song had political connotations, but in private, she did acknowledge it" - Carvalho comments.
The childhood of Amália Rodriguez.
Daughter of Albertino de Jesus Rodrigues and Lucinda da Piedade Rebordão, she lived in a poor and numerous family, originally from Beira Baixa.
His father was a shoemaker and played in a band. They had emigrated to the capital, in search of work, but later, in the absence of it, they return to the countryside and leave Amália in Lisbon, with their maternal grandparents.
Her grandmother, Ana do Rosário, strictly educated her and sent her to Tapada da Ajuda Elementary School where she sang for the first time in public at the age of nine for the school party.
She was a rather shy girl, who until that moment, only sang for her grandfather and her neighbors.
At the age of twelve, he left school and found a job embroidering, but soon after, he started working in a cake factory.
At that age, he tried to commit suicide by drinking match heads. Later he declared:
They were children's things. I once ate matches to punish my grandmother, who had said something I didn't like. When I saw The Camellia Lady I cried, I drank vinegar to be like her … put me in the window to get air, catch tuberculosis and die like her. He didn't understand anything, only that the father was very bad and that he killed himself for it. I wanted to die like this.
The return of their parents and the road to success:
When his parents returned to the Portuguese capital at the age of fourteen, he decided to move in with them. His life changed completely, as he now had to help his mother and put up with a rather authoritarian older brother.
At the age of fifteen, she went with her little sister, Celeste, to sell fruits in the Lisbon port area. It was there that he gained some popularity and managed to participate in the popular parade of Alcântara in 1936.
In 1938, the organizer of the parade urged him to register for the contest of new talents where they named the "Queen of Fado de los Barrios" on behalf of his neighborhood, Alcântara, but he did not participate, since the rest of the contestants refused to compete against her.
In this contest, a spectator recommended it to Jorge Soriano, director of the Casa del Fado.
Her audition was a success, but faced with opposition from the family, Amália declined the invitation. That's when, out of love for guitarist and turner Francisco da Cruz, 23, decided to commit suicide out of love.
Two years later they were married, but that marriage only lasted two years.
Francisco da Cruz asked her for a divorce and Amália decided to take her own life in front of her window taking poison for rats. It was at this time when he made his first performance abroad, more specifically in Madrid in 1943.
Then she married a second time, César Seabra, a Brazilian engineer.
Despite having a good relationship with the dictator Salazar in the 1960s, he banned the sale of his song "Abandono Fado de Peniche", considered an anthem by political prisoners of the Peniche Fortress. The Salazar regime had locked up many political personalities and forced many artists into exile.
The dictatorship or the Communist Party.
Days after the fall of Salazar's dictatorship and the restoration of democracy, Amalia published the simple ‘Meu amor é marinheiro»
Although the cover of this song alluded to the Carnation Revolution, Amália had to withdraw from public life, accused of collaborating with the fascist regime and was not seen until a few months later, at a UNICEF gala in Paris in 1975.
The consequences of these accusations caused a break in his career, he received various tributes, such as the decoration of the Order of the Infante Don Enrique by the then President of the Portuguese Republic Mário Soares.
During this period, she went through economic problems that forced her to get rid of part of her patrimony.
Amália Rodrigues died on October 6, 1999 at the age of 79, due to a heart disease.
Here I leave my caricature of this woman, who in addition to great singer, perhaps more human and little collaborator of the dictatorship with whom he connects. Perhaps, it was a way to survive, perhaps, there may be many perhaps, but the undeniable thing, has been his commitment to the people he wanted, that of his poor neighborhood, that of Alcántara and of course, that immense voice, that gave life to the fado.
WO Orons
English