Amália Rodrigues

Who is Amália Rodrigues?

Amália Rodrigues was a Portuguese singer and actress known as the 'Rainha do Fado' (Queen of Fado), and the artist most responsible for bringing Portuguese fado music to international audiences. Born in Lisbon in 1920 into a poor family, she began singing professionally in the late 1930s and rose to fame in the 1940s. Over a career spanning more than five decades, she recorded hundreds of songs and performed around the world, from Paris and New York to Brazil and Japan, becoming the most celebrated fado singer in history. She elevated fado's literary standing by setting poems by writers such as Luís de Camões and David Mourão-Ferreira to music, and helped make songs like 'Estranha Forma de Vida' and 'Barco Negro' internationally known. She also appeared in several films. A national icon, her death in Lisbon in 1999 prompted three days of official mourning, and her remains were later transferred to the National Pantheon, an honour reserved for Portugal's most distinguished figures.

Sources: Vítor Pavão dos Santos, 'Amália: Uma Estranha Forma de Vida' (biography) · Amália Rodrigues, 'Busto' (album, 1962)