Mariza

Those who know and love Portuguese music, those who frequent and listen to fado, know that Mariza is the queen of this sound, of this "condition of the spirit" transformed into music. She, born in Mozambique, grew up in the alleys of Lisbon, in the heart of the Mouraria district, the cradle of Portuguese fado. It is an old quarter of the city, from always inhabited from poor and marginalized, which grew up as a multicultural and multiethnic area of Lisbon, and among its streets the first fadist singers were born. Born in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, fado became the style of Portuguese popular music, gaining enormous popularity throughout the country. "Modern" fado in the 1960s experienced its golden age, in which great composers, great poets, and great performers brought the genre to its highest expressive heights and international notoriety, mainly due to Amália Rodrigues, but also Ericilia Costa, Alfredo "Marceneiro," composers such as Alain Oulman and Frederico Valéiro, or fadist poets such as João Linhares Barbosa or Frederico de Brito, just to name a few of the most famous and beloved figures.

Amália Rodrigues brought fado into modernity, interpreted the Portuguese heart as few others have been able to do, had a long and extraordinarily successful career all over the world, and left a legacy that has been picked up from a new generation of performers, such as Ana Moura, Camané, Cristina Branco, and, above all, Mariza. She, Marisa Dos Reis Nunes, known as Mariza, among the alleys of Mouraria discovered the magic of fado almost by chance: enamored like all young people of the 1980s, of pop music, soul, funk, she listens to fado at home, with her father's records and slowly becomes fascinated by it. That's when she is invited, after the passing of Amália Rodrigues in 1999, to to perform in a tribute concert to the "Queen

of Fado" who for the first time lends not only her voice but also her soul to the genre. The performance is so beautiful and intense that everyone-her father, friends, fellow musicians-pushes her to to make a fado album.

So Mariza, in 2002, debuted with her first record, Fado em mim, and immediately became a star. Yes, because fado, for her, is not a genre, a style, but a condition of the soul, just as it was for Amália Rodrigues. She does not interpret fado, but lives it, lets it flow through her veins, lets it breathe through her skin, puts it in tune with the beat of her heart. She is faithful to her Portuguese musical roots, but at the same time she is able to open herself to the world, to renew themes and atmospheres, making sure that what she sings is always wonderfully contemporary, not nostalgic, not tied to the past. Over the years, in fact, Mariza has been both an ambassador of Portuguese music to the world but also extremely receptive to the influences the world has on Portuguese music, opening the doors to ever-changing feelings, sensations and sounds. Her fame has grown very quickly outside Portuguese borders and has taken her to performing all over the planet, on five continents, in the most famous theaters, from the Olympia to Carnegie Hall, from the Barbican in London to Opera House in Sidney, winning awards and recognition in so many countries and becoming an ambassador of Portuguese culture in the world.

to Lisbon, where she still lives, is particularly attached: "It is a city from which it is impossible for me to detach myself," she says, "to compose my music I have to breathe its air, see its light. When I return to home I feel I belong there, I feel in tune with everything. I love to travel, I love the places where I have been, I am always greeted with great affection in every part of the world, but Lisbon is where my heart beats, where my feelings take shape and turn into songs." It is said, mistakenly, that fado is a sad music, "but that is not correct," says Mariza, "it is a music full of melancholy but not sadness. Fado is a way of life and life is made up of many different feelings that this music nevertheless expresses. Being music born among the poor, among the marginalized, it has a load of melancholy that is impossible to eliminate, as is also true of the blues, but it is a music of life, of love, of passion." Mariza is certainly connected to the great history of fado and the traditions of Portuguese music, but she does not see tradition as something static and immovable, rather as the brick upon which to build a building that can always be renewed, "although I like to respect the tradition of fado. To electronics or contemporary rhythms, I prefer contaminations with jazz, with blues, which have many elements in common with Portuguese music." New she was also in her approach to the stage, with her short, platinum blond hair and her colorful, tight-fitting dresses, a far cry from the black dresses with the shawl of the same color on her shoulders that have often characterized women performers of fado. The luminous, all-important example of Amália Rodrigues was always well in her mind, but Mariza was never a "follower," instead she sought from immediately to find her own way, paying tribute to Rodrigues' greatness but constantly seeking her own originality.

Nothing static then, indeed hers, as she has well described in one of her album titles, is a "curved fado," "something not unique," she stresses, "that can be looked at from different points of view, remain the same but always appear different." And this diversity is also in the poetic languages that Mariza often uses, from the most popular ones to those of the great Portuguese literature, from José Luís Gordo to Ferdinand Pessoa, "because music is a very wide vehicle, in which different elements can enter, apparently distant, actually linked from a common passion," she says. "My musical research walks hand in hand with the search for words, and I very much love the Portuguese language, which gives me different emotions than to any other language. I could also sing in English, I could take fado to pop territories, but I don't care, I don't seek fame to at all costs, I like to bring Portugal's culture and music to the world."

Live Mariza offers the best of her art and soul, she manages to be passionate and fun, to engage the audience, to make every song exciting. And her stage presence is very strong, she moves around the stage with joy and confidence, conveying her feelings with her beautiful voice but also with extraordinary physicality, "Everyone, when they think to a fado concert, expects something sad, while I believe you can also go to see a show of mine and have fun."

Ernesto Assante