Following off my last post about Amália Rodrigues, the queen of fado music from Portugal, I have another fado singer for you guys this time, only she is contemporary and helped to revive fado once again on the popular music scene: Mariza.
Mariza was born in Mozambique in the early 1970s, when it was still a colony of Portugal (colonialism sucks) and when she was 3, she and her parents moved to Lisbon, where she started singing gospel and jazz. Her father encouraged her to sing fado, as he thought that it would grant her greater acceptance in (racist?) Portugal.
Not until 1999, with the death of Amália Rodrigues, did Mariza record an album of fado music, and she rapidly gained international fame and was considered one of the foremost singers of New Fado. She sang at the FIFA World Cup, Eurovision, and also at the Olympics, and has recorded in both Portugal and Brazil. She has performed all over the world, including Portugal, Brazil, the US, Germany, Ireland, France, and Australia.
So far, Mariza has released eight albums, and interprets fado in her own unique style. It’s partly because of her that many people are enjoying fado for the first time, including me! My favorite song of hers is definitely “Melhor de Mim”, or in English, “The Best of Me”.