This Just In ...

We will tell you the tortured past of this type of song, its bright future and a few of the best places (we think) to hear it. Grab a shawl, a guitarra portuguesa, and a ginja… this is Fado. This is Portugal's national song.

The Song of Fate

A divided Iberian Peninsula emerged into Portugal as an independent kingdom in 1139. The poetry of the day, sung by troubadours, was songs of love, friendship, or mockery. These songs were popular in the Portuguese court. Portugal's' second king, D. Sancho I, was a poet, and Portugal's sixth king, D. Dinis, not only wrote poetry, but was the first monarch in Europe to remove Latin as the official court language. He made Portuguese the nation's official tongue.

What happened next made the Fado more than poetry.

In the 15th century, Portuguese caravels began exploring both sides of the Atlantic and eventually found the sea route to Asia. Hence, the Portuguese sea borne empire reigned for two centuries, becoming the world's first global trading model. The sailors, of course, were faced with shipwreck, years away from their home and family and constant danger. They took their songs along with them for comfort. Ships records of the day show that sailors always brought their guitars, called banzas, and their songs became nostalgic and full of longing.

The banza, today called the guitarra portuguesa, was a unique evolution of the medieval lute. With 12 strings, it has an amazing ability to sound like a human voice.

Fast-forward to the 1830s and Portugal is emerging from a ruinous Napoleonic War and is in the midst of a Civil War. In Lisbon, these uncertain times brought together gypsies, noblemen, artists and others to sing and listen. One of the great voices and performers of Fado was Maria Severa.

By the 1950s, Fado was well established in its present form, with more than a dozen "Fado houses" becoming late-night meeting places in the Bairro Alto section of Lisbon. Celebrated in film and on records, Fado had arrived.

Numerous "Fadistas" attained fame as Fado jumped from song of the people to song of the "in" crowd. Amália Rodriques, a young woman with a powerful voice, took Fado to the stages of performance halls across the world for the first time. She was acclaimed for the emotions and sincerity of her song and became Fado's greatest ambassador.

Lisbon is known has a hotbed of Fado at the moment, but it is not only sung there. The cow herders of the Alentejo and Ribatejo regions sing it, as well as in Porto and across the nation.

In 1974, democracy was restored to Portugal and, with that restoration, Fado seemed to fall away, as belonging to the old regime. But, in the past few years, a new generation has revived its 800-year-old tradition. The song is returning to its roots and being broadcast around the globe through such new "Fadistas" such as Mariza, Ana Moura, Cristina Branco and Pedro Moutinho. Past, present, future, that is Fado.

Fado means fate or destiny

The word "Fado" comes from the Latin "fatum," which means "fate" or "destiny" It is a style of music that it is all about deep feelings: the disappointments of love and the sadness and longing felt for someone who has gone away Traditionally accompanied by the guitar, there are many ways Fado is sung. It can range from the faster Fado corrido of Mouraria, to the impromptu singing known as desgarrada, or the mournful music presented by the students in the ancient city of Coimbra.

The Coimbra Fado

Coimbra is an ancient city with a University, perched high over the River Mondego. It serves as Portugal's center of learning. Since the 13th century, students here, dressed in flowing black capes, have embraced Fado as part of their traditions. The Fado of Coimbra is always sung by a male student tenor. The Fado here is quite different than that of Lisbon, but the guitarra portuguesa offers accompaniment. The Serenata is an annual celebration of the Fado de Coimbra, and it is sung during the graduation celebrations called Queima das Fitas. Additionally, the Fado club named a Capela, located close to the ancient university, offers nightly Fado sung by the students.

The 19th century student, Augusto Hilário, was considered one of the great voices. This is his Fado:

My black cape
Is of the color of dark night
It is not the cape of a student
But the shroud of one who's conquered in life

I want my coffin
To have an odd shape,
In the shape of a heart.
The form of a guitarra

Soul of the Fado

They say that the songs of a sad people are happy, and the songs of a happy nation are the opposite. But the Fado is not sad – it is cathartic. In these verses of suffering, survival, loss and death there is a gritty sense of hope and survival. A happy nostalgia. When you listen to a Fado, you are transported back in time, to a mythical place that erases the present pain. You listen, tear up, and forget by remembering. That, "meus senhores", is the Fado.

Here is a 20th century Fado by Pedro Homem de Mello:

People, that wash in the river
That slice with your hatchet
The boards of my coffin
There will one how will defends you-
Who fulfils your consecrated land
But not your life….

Smells of pain and mud
I sleep with them in bed
I had the same condition
People, people, I belong to you
You gave me moments of greatness
But not your life….