Amalia Rodrigues
La Regina del Fado
Amália Rebordão Rodrigues (23 July 1920 – 6 October 1999), better known as Amália Rodrigues or popularly as Amália, was a Portuguese fadista (fado singer) and actress. Known as the ‘Rainha do Fado‘ (“Queen of Fado”), Rodrigues was instrumental in popularising fado worldwide and travelled internationally throughout her career. She became one of the most important figures during the genre’s revival in the twentieth century and was a leading female fadista during her 50-year recording and stage career.
Rodrigues remains an iconic figure and inspiration to other fado and popular music artists such as Madredeus, Dulce Pontes, Mariza and Cristina Branco. As of 1999, she had sold over 30 million records worldwide. Amália remains the best-selling Portuguese artist of all times.
Fado (Portuguese pronunciation: “destiny, fate”) is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best. But even that information was frequently modified within the generational transmission process that made it reach us today.
Amália da Piedade Rebordão Rodrigues (è stata una cantante e attrice portoghese, considerata la miglior esponente del genere canoro noto come Fado e, a livello internazionale, riconosciuta come la voce del Portogallo; attiva per sessant’anni, fu inumata nel Pantheon Nazionale tra altre personalità che hanno dato lustro al suo Paese.
