South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Hear and sing Portugal’s mournful Fado
Fado, which means “fate,” is the folk music of Lisbon’s rustic neighborhoods. It is often mournfully beautiful, but it can also be jaunty in a nostalgic way.
whispers in my ear a rough English translation of the words she sings. It’s a quintessential fado theme of lost sailors and sad widows: “O waves of the salty sea, where do you get your salt? From the tears shed by the women in black on the sad shores of Portugal.”
Suddenly it’s surroundsound as the diners burst into song, joining the chorus.
Fado is the folk music of Lisbon’s rustic neighborhoods, so accessible to anyone willing to be out late and stroll the back streets. Since the mid 1800s, it’s been the Lisbon blues — mournfully beautiful and haunting ballads about long-gone sailors, broken hearts and bittersweet romance.
Fado means “fate” — how fate deals with Portugal’s adventurers … and the families they leave behind. The lyrics reflect the pining for a loved one across the
A guitarist and singer perform fado music in Lisbon.
water, hopes for a future reunion, remembrances of a rosy past or dreams of a better future. It’s the yearning for what might have been if fate had not intervened. While generally sad, fado can be jaunty … in a nostalgic way.
The songs are often in a minor key. The singer (fadista) is accompanied by stringed inst ruments, including
a 12-string guitarra portuguesa with a round body like a mandolin (or, as the man whispering in my ear said, “like a woman”).
Fado singers typically crescendo into the first word of the verse, like a moan emerging from deep inside. Though the songs are often sorrowful, the singers rarely overact — they plant themselves
firmly and sing stoically in the face of fate.
You can visit Lisbon’s fado museum, located at the foot of the characteristic Alfama district. It’s well worth the time for its recreated bar scenes, its glamorous photo gallery of fado’s biggest stars and a chance to learn about the uniquely Portuguese instruments that go with the genre.
The museum is memorable for its user-friendly audio clips that demonstrate the evolution of the art form and its many variations and offer a chance to hear the iconic crooners of fado’s glory days. But don’t let that be the extent of your fado experience. You must take in that scene while you’re in Lisbon.
While fado has become one of Lisbon’s favorite late-night tourist traps, I can still find funky bars — without the high prices and big-bus tour groups — that
feel very local. Two districts, the Alfama and the Bairro Alto, have small, informal fado restaurants for late dinners or even later evenings of drinks and music. Handwritten “fado tonight” (fado esta noite) signs in Portuguese are good news, but even a restaurant filled with tourists can serve up fine fado with its sardines.
After thanking the man who’d translated the songs for me, I leave the bar late that night feeling oddly uplifted. An evening seasoned with the tears of black-clad widows reminds me that life, even salty with sadness, is worth embracing.