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Amália, Queen of the Fado ( Rainha do Fado )_v2
The inimitable Amália. Amália Rodrigues was born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal and in her adult life reigned as "Queen of the Fado". There will only ever be one Amália. Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones know the Fado well, as do Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Rod Stewart, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Ian Moss, Jimmy Barnes, to name but a few, and from yesteryear, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Willie McTell, Robert Johnson, Lead Belly, and so many more, as does B.B. King still.
Paintings in order of appearance:
1.) Velhas Da Praia ("Old Women of the Beach" wearing black shawl) by Pedro Ferreira
2.) Amália by Unknown (Júlio Quaresma?)
3.) Amália by Pedro Leitão
4.) Amália by Henrique Ribó
5.) Amália by Maluda
6.) Amália by Fernando Carlos Lopes
7.) Amália by Eduardo Malta
From Wikipedia:
"Her father was a trumpet player and cobbler from Fundão who returned there when Amália was just over a year old, leaving her to live in Lisbon with her maternal grandmother in a deeply Catholic environment until she was 14, when her parents returned to the capital and she moved back in with them.
"She was known as the "Rainha do Fado" ("Queen of Fado") and was most influential in popularizing the fado worldwide. She was unquestionably the most important figure in the genre's development, by virtue of an innate interpretive talent carefully nurtured throughout a 40-year recording and stage career. Rodrigues' performances and choice of repertoire pushed Fado's boundaries and helped redefine it and reconfigure it for her and subsequent generations. In effect, Rodrigues wrote the rulebook on what fado could be and on how a female singer—or Fadista—should perform it, to the extent that she remains an unsurpassable model and an unending source of repertoire for all those who came afterwards. Rodrigues also remains the sole truly international star to have ever come out of Portugal, with an extensive international career between the 1950s and the 1970s, although in an era where such efforts were not as easily quantified as today. Other well-known international artists such as Madredeus, Dulce Pontes and Mariza have come close, however.
"Rodrigues' parents had nine children: Vicente and Filipe, José and António (who both died in childhood), Amália, Celeste, Aninhas (who died at sixteen), Maria da Glória (who died shortly after birth), and Maria Odete. In 1940 Amália married Francisco Cruz, a lathe worker and amateur guitar player. They separated in 1943, and were divorced in 1946. In 1961, in Rio de Janeiro, she married César Seabra, a Brazilian engineer; they remained married until his death in 1997. She had no children."
I understand only too well now why my father's "tears they fell like rain" when this lady sang.
