Amália, Queen of the Fado ( Rainha do Fado ) 01 video

Amália Rodrigues was born and raised in Lisbon, Portugal and in her adult life reigned as "Queen of the Fado". There'll only ever be one Amália, although it is imperative that the Fado tradition be carried on by such artists as Mariza and others. It may seem odd, but Robert Plant, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones know the Fado well, as do Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Bruce Springsteen, Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Ian Moss, Jimmy Barnes to name but a few, and from yesteryear, "Blind" Lemon Jefferson, Blind Willie McTell, Robert (Leroy) Johnson, Lead Belly, and so many more... BB King continues to practice it also. 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 ...