Amália Rodrigues is a unique symbol of Portugal, of its simple authenticity and sensual magic.
To celebrate the centenary of her birth is to pay just homage and o er our collective thanks to the woman whose voice is also our homeland, who has never truly left us, and who continues to be an example of inspirational humility for new generations of poets, composers, musicians and interpreters of our national song.
Amália is within all of us. She is her unforgettable voice, her emotion and the evocation of her poetry. She is a “strange way of life” that appeared in the most sublime and humble of people. Because Amália came from the people, to us, her name embodies that same people. The simplicity, naturalness and lucidity in the most in nite and sublime corner of her soul live on in all of us.
The Portuguese artist that embraced the whole world, that moved kings and queens, that sang Fado and popular songs, operettas and operas, and Italian, Spanish, French and English songs. Deep down, Amália was perhaps touched by a certain divinity, which helped trace her destiny. And Amália magically rewrote the trace and destiny of the Fado that lives in us all. The trace and destiny of a people.
It was Amália herself who gathered owers in other people’s gardens and along the roadside, subtly and with a smile of purity, who became Divine on stage, with the beauty of her jewellery and heels, always so cosmopolitan, and with her own image and style.
Unmistakable and unmatched in the intensity with which she transcended the social and artistic worlds surrounding her, overcoming them with her genius, brilliance, wit and spirit. The spirit of one who, crossing seas, oceans and continents, took Portugal and its language ever further a eld, enhancing it forever through a decisive contribution to the consecration of Fado as intangible cultural heritage of Humanity.
