With her mahogany-rich voice, impassioned performances and striking looks, the Portuguese fado singer Mariza has, in a few short years, become a reigning diva on the world music scene.
She has blown the cobwebs off Portugal’s traditional fado music, bringing to it a contemporary edge that plays to audiences’ growing affinity for global sounds.
“Fado means fate or destiny,” Mariza explained at a sold-out concert in Boston, the start of her tour of the U.S. that stops at the Newman Center on Saturday night.
“Fado was the music of Portuguese sailors, of African slaves and of Brazilians,” she said. “It was a fusion of cultures. Our sailors and explorers spread Portuguese culture around the world, but they brought some back, too.”
Fado songs often describe a longing for something that has been lost, so it is known as the Portuguese blues. “We Portuguese can be melancholic,” Mariza said. “But we have a sweet melancholy. And that is fado.”
Not all of Mariza’s songs are mournful. She performs many upbeat numbers including “Rosa Branca” (White Rose) and “Fado Primavera” (Springtime Fado).
Mariza’s concerts also spotlight acoustic guitar music. On this tour, she is backed by an acoustic guitar, a bass and a Portuguese guitar, a unique, round-bodied 12-string that produces bright, zingy notes. The distinctive Portuguese guitar features in all her music: “It has a sound like tears, like a woman, and I sing to it like that,” she said.
Fado often is in a minor key, creating a moody, broody atmosphere for lyrics that express longing and anguish. In contrast, Mariza’s style exudes a bubbling love of life, her sense of enjoyment coming across especially in her patter between songs. Critics have likened her abilities to those of a great opera performer, but Mariza says her singing simply tells stories.
She has her own interesting tale to tell. Born to a Portuguese civil servant father and a mother of mixed African-Indian descent, she and her parents left her birthplace of Mozambique in 1976. She grew up in Lisbon’s working-class port district, Mouraria, where fado originated in the 19th century. As a girl, she would creep downstairs to her parents’ restaurant and peek in at the singers performing late each night.
At 5, she started singing fado but gave up when she entered her teens.
“People told me that I sang fado differently,” she said. “I took that as a negative so I started singing Brazilian music, jazz, bossa nova instead.” She sang on a Brazilian cruise ship and, back in Lisbon, worked with a band that covered songs by R&B artist Randy Crawford, the Rolling Stones and Supertramp.
But Mariza was inexorably drawn back to fado. One night, a popular Portuguese poet persuaded her to sing in his club. “He said, ‘Why are you always singing music that is Brazilian and English? Why don’t you sing Portuguese music?’ So I returned to fado.”
In 1999 Mariza sang at a memorial service for the undisputed queen of fado, Amalia Rodrigues — Portugal’s Edith Piaf. Rodrigues was so revered that when she died the government declared three days of national mourning. The memorial service was broadcast on national TV.
Relatively unknown, a slender young Mariza sang in tribute a song made famous by Rodrigues. Her heartfelt performance made her a star.
Her 2001 debut, “Fado Em Mim,” was an instant hit in Portugal; within a year she was touring the world.
On her latest album, “Terra,” Mariza explores new influences, such as Spanish flamenco music and jazz. While critics say Mariza will inevitably move toward mainstream music, she resists.
“I will never be tired of fado. It’s the way I express myself. It’s my personality, my feelings, my emotions,” she said. “Fado has a little bit of all ingredients — jazz, blues, classical music. It is rich. In Portugal now, you cannot walk on the street without hearing fado. I am really happy about that.”
MARIZA.
World music.The Portuguese fado singer performs at DU’s Newman Center, 2344 E. Iliff Ave. Saturday . 7:30 p.m. $28-$48. newmancenterpresents.com or 303-871-7720
