“To be a fadista, is to be Portuguese,” say the lyrics of one traditional fado song. Popularized in the dimly lit taverns of 19th-century Portugal, fado, or “fate,” is an often painfully emotional genre. The keepers of this cultural treasure sing to remember stories of their Iberian past. These are stories not to be forgotten; stories about the soul; stories that remain true.
They sing about the loneliness of Portuguese isolation, and of a people who looked to the sea for guidance. It is about nostalgia and the rush of the ocean waves. It is about a fadista woman on the edge of a coastal cliff, as she converses with the wind, begging the sea for her lover’s safe return. Yet fado is not always as mournful as it might first sound; a more suitable word would be soulful.
“With a longing, but in a happy way,” fado performer Mariza told Rock Paper Scissors Inc. Known as the “queen of fad,” Mariza brought her country’s traditional music to the attention of the world. With four platinum albums, the world-class singer has sold out Carnegie Hall, the Sydney Opera House and everything in between.

Even with her commercial success, Mariza describes her band as a musical family that is in it for the music, and not the money. She holds closest to her heart the small traditional fado houses, like the one she grew up in. Fado is learned on the streets and in taverns, not in the school, she explained. Born in Mozambique, Mariza grew up in her family’s fado house in Portugal, where she began singing at such an early age her father used pictures to help convey the emotional meaning of songs.
“Minh’ Alma” is me asking to myself what my soul wants from me … for what streets in life she was trying to take me. It’s me asking to my soul why … she puts fado in my way; why she makes me, the fado-er, a boyfriend … why I have all the time to flirt with this music, and why this music flirts so much with me,” Mariza said about one of her songs.
In January, Mariza released her new album, “Terra,” and embarked on a three-month North American tour that took her through 47 cities. Her years of traveling have inspired a desire to explore new music, and “Terra” brings the fado personality to a variety of styles. “At this moment I was in another mood. I was trying to show to people we have such a big musical world to explore … at the same time it’s like a boat will return again to Portugal,” Mariza said.
Her bleached short hair and thin, black dress with a ruffled bottom that extends outward to the floor leave an unforgettable impression. But her manner of singing has a very powerful, almost masculine character. Mariza relies on images from the past for inspiration. “I just had memories (that) would help me to get into the sounds I had in my mind,” she said.
The “majestic alto” varies incredibly from a whisper to a glass-breaking shrill as she conveys a beautiful, but tongue-twisting language. Traditionally, a fadista singer is accompanied with a Portuguese steel-string guitar and a Spanish guitar. “Terra” expands much further, however, featuring Brazilian and Cuban piano players, African singers, and to top it off, a Spanish producer specializing in flamenco guitar. Many of the innovations are subtle; for example, “Frontiera,” is played with traditional Portuguese percussions, but the player himself is a Cuban.
Listening to “Beijo de Saudade,” the first thing to come to mind is Buena Vista Social Club. The guitar playing, the rhythm, the chord progression and trumpet line all say Cuba. Then enters Mariza, and the song is suddenly completely different. Surprisingly, the lyrics were altogether written by an African poet in the Portuguese colony of Cape Verde.
“During seven years of international tours, I had the chance of discovering other peoples and cultures. I watched and I listened. I learned. This is my moment. This is my truth. I’ve always been true to myself, and I’ve always been true to my fans. And I wanted this album to show them my progress as a singer and a human being,” said Mariza.
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