fado

Mariza Nunes (born December 16, 1973 in Mozambique) is a fado singer-songwriter on the World Connection label. She moved to Portugal when she was three, and was raised in one of the most traditional quarters of Lisbon, Mouraria, where she learned how to sing fado. She has a Portuguese father but her mother is from Mozambique (the song Transparente is a tribute to her African grandmother). For the Olympic Games of Athens 2004 she collaborated with Sting for the duet "A Thousand Years", released on the official pop album of the Athens Olympics Unity...

Madredeus is a Portuguese band whose music combines fado influences with modern folk music. The band's founding members were Pedro Ayres Magalhães (Classical guitar), Rodrigo Leão (keyboard synthesizer), Francisco Ribeiro (cello) and Teresa Salgueiro (vocals). Magalhães and Leão formed the band in 1985, Ribeiro joined in 1986. They'd been searching for a female singer, and found Teresa Salgueiro in one of Lisbon's night clubs. Teresa liked their music and agreed to join, so in 1987 Madredeus recorded their first album, Os dias da Madredeus.

Official site (with long song extracts): www.carminho.net

Portuguese vocalist Ana Moura, whose soulful and riveting interpretation of her land's captivating fado style has made her a star in Europe. Ana Moura has become a leading exponent of this poetic, deeply expressive idiom which personifies the Portuguese psyche as it explores such universal themes as lost love, separation, and longing. As Ana explains, "It's very special because it's all about emotions and feelings. It needs no translation."