Some of you might have heard a mention or even heard it being played around you at a given time in a restuarant or coffee shop like Starbucks with it's eclectic style...
Two guitar dual, frantically fighting to the center spotlight, but to be overshadowed by and at it's true center a horsey 'castiça' voice that cries with runs singing in Portuguese...
But what really is FADO?
It is the traditional song of Lisbon. It can be heard all over Portugal. But a true fadista can only come from Lisbon (my opinion here, and shared by many).
It is a form of music with a harsh and unknown origin. Some scholars speculated that it probably came from Arabic influences during the their occupation of the Iberian peninsula or that it has roots in medieval times in Europe, and maybe even slave trade ships from Brazil to Portugal during trade when they were a Portuguese colony (not that any of this is right), but no one really knows...
This contributes to it enigmatic and pragmatic nature, it's tone and subject matter...
FADO IS ABOUT DESTINY AND THE UNKNOWN!
But, what it is, is that it is considered 'the blues of Europe', by curious explores who know no better, for which they know nothing of it's subject matter and use this blanket statement for lack of better comparison as each are very distinctly their own thing. Both styles have within embedded and tangled their own histories, pains and their gains, that entitle them to freely stand in their own right... The parallel drawn between Black slaves yurning, longing their pain song while being unfairly and brutally mistreated is not the same fas FADO, the sentiment of pain is there fir both, for the Portuguese in there own terms and other reasons, whatever they maybe historically is usually about economic disparity and censorship also a form of subjugation by the powers, but still both are different.
FADOS MESSAGE is a simple one, it is a longing 'saudade' (no direct translation to any other language) to overcome a pretermined fate or destiny that always leads to pain, usually from losing someone dear and/or specifically related to a fishing tragedy traditionally as its story backbone (ties to Portugals explorative and sea based culture). Thus, it is about pain and loss and not being able to overcome it, but to understand it and live and press on with it.
In a nutshell, FADO is a form of healing and making sense of life as most music can be, music has healing properties in the midsts of tragedy... Thus, it is how us Portuguese people from Lisbon 'Lisboetas' have come to appreciate and overcome our adversities such as poverty, fascism, and ignorance...
I write these thoughts or insights with pride and joy as to what FADO is after just having freshly recorded my first ever FADO track for which I am so proud of. But also to bring you reader an understanding of it and parading it more to the world as a form of prestigious music that you should know.
From someone who's both parents material and paternal sides have ties to this musical art form and it was a central pillar in my household and upbringing and through all my life, it even is responsible for causing my parents divorce (a destiny of pain that they could not escape)... I do not want to boost myself as an expert in the matter, but to simply bring forth a new matter and topic of discussion to simulate your own research into.
Maybe you will look into, maybe you will not, maybe you will love it, maybe not...
But what I can suerly guarantee is that you have neaver heard anything like it...
MM