Stamp of the Month: July 2020

Amália Rodrigues

The Portuguese singer Amália da Piedade Re-bordão Rodrigues was born in Lisbon on July 23, 1920. She died on October 6, 1999 in her hometown. In July 2020, her birthday turns 100.
 
Amália was one of ten children of a poor green-
grocer. As a young girl, she helped to sell fruits in the Alcântara docks. In 1939 she started her career as a Fado singer in the nightclub “Retiro da Severa”.

Portugal 3.10.2011
In 1944 and 1945 she was on tour in Brazil, where the first of her more than 170 recordings took place. Her international breakthrough came in the 1950s with the song “Coimbra”, written by Raul Ferrao in the late 1930s. The song later became a worldwide success under the title “April in Portugal”. In the 1940s and 50s, Amália Rodrigues also starred in about a dozen films.
Amália Rodrigues, the “Queen of Fados”, is considered the most important Fado singer. Through her worldwide tours and numerous television appearances all over the world, she shaped the international image of this genre like no other.

 
The video shows Amália Rodrigues at her last concert in Lisbon. A week before her death in September 1999, she reinterpreted the song “Coimbra”, with which she achieved her international breakthrough in the 1950s.