Amalia Rodrigues

 


This is me in Amalia Rodrigues’ house next to this beautiful painting of her. She was the “Queen of Fado music” and the “Voice of Portugal. Her music was very patriotic in the sense that it highlighted the uniquely beautiful culture of Portugal. It instilled in the people a sense of pride. She was an icon not only in Portugal but also internationally. She sang in five languages (French, Italian, English, Spanish, and of course, Portuguese). Some quick facts are that she was born in 1920 during the time of the cherries and started her career in 1939. She won many awards such as the city of Paris silver medal of honor in 1959 and toured all over the world. The people of Japan especially loved her. She also had a cute parrot that we met as well! She died quite recently at age 79 in 1999. I thought that she was pretty impressive because she just seemed to have a lot of talent and personality and I love that people recognized her for it.

Her contribution is important in a number of ways. First, she contributed to the international pride and culture of Lisbon. She made works of art, and was the first one to sing the Portuguese poems. People would send her their poetry in hopes she would incorporate it into her songs. This spread her home culture all over the world. Secondly, she was chosen by the regime to symbolize what they wanted, the idea of freedom, even though that was not always the most true during the dictatorship. Because of this, she had lots of power and influence in her time, which was unusual for a woman. With this, Amalia talked about some of the problems with the regime in her music and it made it past the censors by claiming that it was about her love life.

She has been commemorated in a great way in my opinion. They turned her house into a museum according to her wishes and left everything how she had it. She made sure to include a portrait of herself at the top of the stairs so people could feel like they were warmly being invited into her home even when she could not be there to greet us. The teas she liked were even in the cupboards. Additionally, her music still commemorates her and she is still very much beloved. I loved this “monument” to her because we could see into her personality and see how she lived her life. I thought it was fascinating. 


Comments

  1. EleaseMay 27, 2024 at 9:39 PM

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  2. EleaseMay 27, 2024 at 9:39 PM

    I love this blog post Anna! Amalia definitely faced some challenges with her education and not really being fully done with it. This is less of an obstacle than it was back then because of public education and its requirements.

    Learning about Amalia and her influence on Portugal helps us to understand the importance of music and singing to Portugal.

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  3. Sophie CandlandJune 11, 2024 at 10:41 AM

    Love this post, Anna! I enjoyed reading your points about how she contributed to the city as a cultural capital, especially how she symbolized what they wanted. That was a great point, which is an aspect I hadn’t thought about before!

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