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Mariza
In less than twelve years, Mariza has risen from a well hidden local phenomenon, known only to a small circle of admirers in Lisbon, to one of the most widely acclaimed stars of the World Music circuit.
Fado em mim Album
It all started with her first CD, Fado em Mim, published in 2001, which quickly led to a number of highly successful international presentations - the Québec Summer Festival, in which she received the event’s First Award (Most Outstanding Performance), New York’s Central Park, the Hollywood Bowl, the Royal Festival Hall, the Womad Festival - and ultimately earned her BBC Radio 3’s award for Best European Artist in the area of World Music. Fado em Mim was an exciting first album, showing a young singer with a rich, vibrant voice and a strong artistic personality. She still sang several hits of Amália’s repertory but her approach to the heritage of the great Fado diva was already so personal that she could easily cast away any suggestion of mere imitation. And within her original material Ó Gente da minha Terra, by the young composer Tiago Machado, soon became a major hit in its own right.
Fado Curvo Album
In 2003 came her second album, Fado Curvo. It was clearly a step ahead in a process of strengthening her own style and widening her own repertory, with the help of excellent arrangements by Carlos Maria Trindade. Amália was still present, with her emblematic Primavera, on a poem by David Mourão Ferreira, but so was ballad singer José Afonso, an icon of the democratic opposition to the Salazar regime in the 1960s and 70s, and much of the material was new and inspired. Fado Curvo would reach 6th place on the Billboard chart for World Music, and win the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis and the European Border Breakers Award at the 2004 MIDEM. Mariza’s stage performances multiplied, with great personal triumphs at the London Royal Festival Hall, the Frankfurt Alte Oper, the Paris Théâtre de le Ville, the Los Angeles Walt Disney Concert Hall (with the Los Angeles Philharmonic), the Madrid Teatro Albéniz or the Barcelona Teatre Grec. Her performing style at that period can be seen in her Live in London DVD, featuring her March 2003 concert at the Union Chapel and displaying her impressive vocal gifts and her growing self confidence onstage. In 2004, together with Carlos do Carmo, she was appointed by the Mayor of Lisbon an Ambassador for the nomination of Fado to the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, which was to be officially approved by UNESCO in November 2011.
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Mariza at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Concert Hall
by Nenad Georgievski
Mariza Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Netherlands April 20, 2022 When it comes to expressiveness, passion, technique, and sheer beauty of voice, probably there is no female singer today to equal Portuguese singer Mariza. It's rare to see a singer today who invests herself or himself so much during a single performance. Mariza is the main exponent of Portuguese fado, the equivalent of the American blues or Macedonian chalgia, music that was born in the neighborhoods and taverns ...
read moreMariza at Sava Centar in Belgrade
by Nenad Georgievski
Mariza Sava Centar Belgrade December 7, 2017 Making a dramatic entrance on the stage comes naturally to Portuguese fado diva Mariza. In the completely darkened hall of Sava Centar, she quietly stepped onto the stage to the sounds of the guitar and wowed the audience with the power of her voice. The opening tune of the night Por Ti" was a poignant yet dramatic duet between Mariza and guitarist Pedro Jóia. The ...
read moreMariza at Town Hall
by Ernest Barteldes
Mariza Town Halk New York, NY October 15, 2016 As part of her first major U.S. tour in nearly five years (she took a break to start a family), Mariza kicked off her set at Town Hall in a more traditional manner, backed by Portuguese and Spanish guitars and acoustic bass, which acknowledged the heritage of the music of Alfama, the Lisbon neighborhood where her career began--including the classic black dress worn by most fado ...
read moreMariza: Music is My Fado
by Nenad Georgievski
Listening to Portuguese fado singer Mariza, it's really hard not to be taken away by her passionate singing, charismatic stage presence, and sly sass. Yet, beneath her almost fragile and gentle appearance is a tiger waiting to spring. Ever since she burst onto the world stage 15 years ago, she swept the world with a fiery and emotional interpretation of songs belonging to the fado tradition. Linked with Portugal's rich maritime history, fado is music imbued with a sense of ...
read moreMariza: Mundo
by Nenad Georgievski
Even if you don't understand a word of Portuguese, the enormity of Mariza's gift is immediately and intoxicatingly evident upon first hearing. Armed with an alluring voice and arresting charismatic presence, Mariza is one of the great exponents of the Portuguese fado music and much more than that. Arriving several years after her strictly traditional take on fado with Fado Tradicional (EMI Music Portugal, 2010), Mariza's Mundo is a place where music is a pure expression of emotion, but far ...
read moreMariza & Friends at Carnegie Hall
by Ernest Barteldes
Mariza & Friends November 21, 2009 Carnegie Hall New York, NY It was a special night for Portuguese singer Mariza when she took the stage at Carnegie Hall backed by her group (Angelo Freire, Portuguese guitarra; Diogo Clemente, acoustic guitar; Marino de Freitas, acoustic bass; Simon James, piano and trumpet), kicking off the set with a song that speaks of why fado--her country's national genre--is so important. Drummer Vicky joined in for ...
read moreMariza: Fado Curvo
by AAJ Staff
A friend of mine insists that you have to be Portuguese to understand fado. In one sense she's right--fado is intimately associated with poetry, and you pretty much have to be a native speaker to grasp that part. And the feeling of the music is also intimately associated with saudade. The fact that saudade has no direct translation into English is an important point (close ideas include nostalgia, loneliness, yearning, and missing). My Portuguese friend's eyes immediately glaze over when ...
read moreMariza: Voice of Portugal Has New CD, Tour
Source:
All About Jazz
A Genre Reborn and a Singer Transformed: A New Mariza Brings a Smile to the World
Charlie Chaplin's Smile" was never supposed to end up on the latest album by Portugal's musical grande dame. Mariza, a fado powerhouse, and Brazilian pianist Ivan Lins were just clowning around, having some fun with the sweet song that's been covered by everybody from Barbra Streisand and Diana Ross to Judy Garland and even Michael Jackson. That is, until they realized producer Javier Limn ...
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