A.U.A. Presents: Best Fado Album 2007: Corre-me O Fado Nas Veias!!

On Sunday, os Artistas Unidos da America (A.U.A.) held an award ceremony for artists that recorded an album in 2007. The gala was full of artists, fans, and media. It was nice to see that artists that weren't nominated for an award were there to support each other. The show was well organized and will be broadcast on the Portuguese Channel in the New England area some time this month.

The judges consisted of 10 people involved with the media. Here is a list of the winners for the Premios Lusiadas:

The big winner of the night was Jorge Silva with 4 awards. Dança Inglés "Cara Mia", Balada Inglés "Body to Body", Dança Português "Ana Maria", and Melhor Album de Musica Portuguesa "Ela Tem O Dor Fazer Chorar"

Raizes won in the Música Tradicional and Lusobeat's Online People's Choice Award Categories

Marc Dennis won Rock Português "Anos 70 e 80", and with Ana Lisa in the Duet category for "Foste Tu"

Jorge Ferreira won Best Marcha "Se Ela Encosta", and Best Baile "Deixa-me Ir Contigo"

Gilberto Cimbron won Álbum Humorístico

Arlindo Andrade won Balada Português "Dia de Casamento"

Luis Cabral won Instrumental "Wasted Days and Wasted Nights"

Eratoxica won Rock Inglés "Its OK"

Nelia won Melhor Album de Musica Portuguesa "Meu Mundo"

And me for my album "Corre-me O Fado Nas Veias" won Melhor Album de Fado


They also had a tribute to Jack Sebastião and awarded him with a Lifetime Achievement Award with a touching video of his performances and interviews.

I couldn't believe I won. I was sitting right next to Jeremias Macedo who was also nominated for the same award and I felt a little awkward when they called my name and announced that I won. He's been such a dear friend to me that it felt a little unfair. When I got on stage to receive my award I was overwhelmed with nerves because I didn't prepare a speech and I'm not the best public speaker especially when I'm under pressure. Honestly I don't really remember what I said and if I said it right. I was so busy trying to think about what to say that I don't think I realized how big of a deal it was until I looked at my dad. At the end of my speech I thanked him and told him that I dedicated the album to him so I wanted to dedicate the award to him as well, AND HE HAD TEARS IN HIS EYES!! My dad's one of those men that think that real men don't cry. In my 21 years of life I've only seen him cry 3 times. He was so proud. At that moment I realized how big of a deal it was and that this was one of the most important moments of my career.

Thank you, thank you, thank you:
Rob Leonardo (Digital Wave Multimedia), Sr. Viriato Ferreira, Sr. José Silva, Artistas Unidos da America, Vivian Francisco, Carlos & Kelly, Mom, Dad (No one worked harder on this album than you did) e toda a comunidade Portuguesa pelo vosso carinho e apoio!!!

Ana Moura @ Symphony Space!!

Ever since I bought her album this summer in Portugal, Ana Moura's "Para Além Da Saudade" has been on repeat in my car... I can honestly say it is my favorite Fado album of all time with its diversity in Fados and originality. I was extremely disappointed when I didn't get the chance to see Ana Moura perform no Porto, Portugal like I planned to, but 2 weeks in Portugal doesn't give you too much time to do anything. But finally on Friday I saw Ana Moura's Concert at Symphony Space in NYC!!

The concert was amazing and full of surprises... The venue held about 700 people that were completely silent throughout the whole show. Ana Moura's performance was 90 minutes and not long enough! The guitarists couldn't be human, especially Angelo Freire on the Portuguese Guitar. He was unbelievable and only 19 years old!! After playing a guitarrada he also sang a Fado with Ana Moura and it turns out not only does he play well but he's a great singer too! A few songs later, another surprise... Tim Ries, The Rolling Stones' Saxophone player with whom Ana Moura is working on the Stones' Project with, came out and performed a few songs with her. Then she sang an amazing version of Barco Negro with the bass player, Filipe Larsen, modifying the Fado completely, turning it into the best version of the Fado I've ever heard. She also sang Fado Loucura without amplification like they do in the traditional Fado houses in Lisbon.

In order for Ana Moura to sing all of the Fados I wanted her to sing from her albums she would've had to been on stage for another 90 minutes... But all of the Fados on her setlist were well selected and really engaged the audience.

After the show was over, it seemed as though all of the young Fadistas from the Tri-State area were there; Michelle Pereira, Pedro Botas, Michael Da Silva, Diogo Arsenio, and I. We all got a chance to meet Ana Moura and besides from being the nicest and most simple Fadista I've ever met, she is stunningly beautiful!!

Here's a video of Ana Moura singing her latest single "Os Buzios" with the same guitarists that accompanied her in New York:

Below is an article of from the New York Times of the show:

March 31, 2008

Music Review | Ana Moura

Sorrow in Seductive Adornment

By JON PARELES

Sorrow wrapped in guitar filigree, elegant romance with a tragic undercurrent — that’s the tradition of Portuguese fado that Ana Moura joins. At Symphony Space on Friday night she started her World Music Institute concert facing not the audience but a band member: Angelo Freire on guitarra (Portuguese guitar), the round, high-strung instrument that’s inseparable from fado. She sang to the guitarra, begging it to break the silence and save her. She was dressed in black, with a shawl over her shoulders.

Fado (“fate”), which arose out of Lisbon cafes to become the most prized music of Portugal, takes itself that seriously. Every few songs in Ms. Moura’s set, she sang about fado itself. When she decided, just into her 20s, to sing fado rather than pop or rock, she had a fado written for her: “Sou do Fado, Sou Fadista” (“I Am of the Fado, I Am a Fado Singer”), a ballad that she sang on Friday more as a confession than a declaration. For one song she set aside the microphone to sing fado unamplified, as it is still sung in cafes and fado houses. Her voice swelled to fill Symphony Space.

In its most traditional form, fado is a collection of established melodies for which poets wrote sets of lyrics — analogous, in that way, to early blues. But fado is also, more flexibly, a musical style and a mindset. Along with Norah Jones and Sheryl Crow, Ms. Moura was asked to record Rolling Stones songs for an album produced by the Stones’ saxophonist, Tim Ries. On Friday night he sat in as she filled the Stones’ “No Expectations” with the pensive resignation of fado.

Her own group was a bare-bones trio: just Mr. Freire, José Elmiro Nunes on acoustic guitar and Filipe Larsen on acoustic bass guitar. They were all she needed to create fado’s slow-motion ballads or light-fingered oompahs, topped with the scurrying countermelodies of the guitarra. It’s music that exposes every vocal nuance, and Ms. Moura had nothing to hide. Her lush alto voice can be smoky and hesitant or clear and pointed, working up to a tremulous insistence that hints at fado’s Arabic connections. She made each song a series of small dramatic surges: glimmers of hope, hints of sensuality, passages of melancholy, glints of determination.

Fado isn’t always slow and mournful. Ms. Moura’s version of “Barco Negro,” a ghostly love song made famous by the queen of fado, Amália Rodrigues, had a swinging bass vamp while the musicians tapped percussively on their guitars. Ms. Moura’s fado never forgets about the music’s past, but it lives in the moment.

A Minha Madrinha do Fado: Anita Guerreiro!!

At my most recent performance in Newark, I was honored with a mini ceremony that will always be a big part of me. Before my performance, Anita Guerreiro, a huge name in Fado, theater, and television, walked to the middle of the hall and introduced me and shared with the audience some advice she gave me to succeed that made her choke up while she reflected on her long artistic career. After placing the xaile over my shoulders, it was official: Anita Guerreiro é a Madrinha do Fado da Nathalie Pires!!

I was happy that both my parents were there to see it along with my Madrinha de baptismo, Fatima Brás, and her family. (She gave me the xaile that Anita placed on my shoulders for my album release party back in September.)

I proceeded by singing "Foi Deus," the Fado that started it all for me and it also happens to be the first Fado Anita ever sang... It was a memorable night and I'm very proud to say "que a minha Madrinha do Fado é a grande Anita Guerreiro!"

My trip to Florida...

For the first time in my Fado career, I traveled by airplane to one of my performances, my first performance in Florida!! When I arrived in Tampa, I had the pleasure of meeting Jose Do Carmo, a Fadista who used to live in Philadelphia but now resides in Florida. It was nice to meet him because he sang Fado with my father and now over 20 years later he's singing with me. Shortly thereafter, we met up with Sr. Viriato, Sr. Silva, and Jose Carlos, who were exhausted from the trip and their lack of sleep because they saw Rodrigo, a huge name in Fado, perform in Rhode Island the night before.

Later that night we arrived at a Portuguese club in St. Petersburg which was hosting a wine tasting and Fado event with about 300 people. It was a great crowd which made it a great show. I was told before the show that the audience usually likes to leave early so we should try to end the show before midnight, but it was 1am and the crowd still wanted more Fado. I ended with "Fadinho da Ti Maria Benta" and by the end of the Fado, the audience were all on their feet dance folklore with me!! It was wonderful but too short of a trip.

Thank you Sr. Henrique Chipelo, Sr. Luis Filipe Carvalho, and the rest of the organization of the club for the invitation and thank you Sra. Lina Baltazar for your hospitality and "grande amizade como sempre!" I hope to return to Florida soon...

A.U.A. Presents "Espetaculo de Apresentacao do Premio Lusiada"

"Corre-me O Fado Nas Veias" is nominated for an award!!

It was recognized by os Artistas Unidos da America.



Also...
The AUA and Lusobeat have teamed up to ask you to vote
for your favorite artist for this years first annual AUA/Lusobeat People's Choice Award!
www.lusobeat.com

Anita Guerreiro

On March 1st I had the pleasure of getting to know and performing with Anita Guerreiro in Virginia. If you haven't seen her in one of her many plays or soap operas, then I'm positive that you are familiar with her 1969 mega-hit "Cheira Bem, Cheira a Lisboa." Anita Guerreiro shared with me some of her experiences and memories from her successful career on television , theaters, stages around the world, and Fado houses. We also spoke about other Fadistas: her relationship with the Diva of Fado, Amalia Rodrigues; her Madrinha de Casamento, Herminia Silva; Lenita Gentil with whom she sings with at O Faia, the Fado house she sings at; and younger Fadistas like Mariza, Raquel Tavares, Ricardo Ribeiro, and Ana Moura.

It was a lot of fun hanging around Anita Guerreiro. There's a soap opera that she was in "Olhos de Agua" that is currently airing in the United States where she plays "Celeste." Every where she went, she was bombarded with many surprised and excited fans calling her "Celeste" and begging to take pictures with her and bribing her to tell them how the soap opera ends. She was really cool about it and never turned anyone down.

When it was time to perform, I was really nervous because at this event we were singing Fado the traditional way, without microphones which I love, but when a professional singer from a Fado house is in the same room who sings without a mic every night for a living for so many years, I started to doubt myself. Luckily my performance went great. But when Anita Guerreiro performed, the audience was singing along with her and interacting with her and everyone loved her jokes. She was a huge hit. It was amazing and she claimed she was tired from her flight the day before, I can't imagine a better or more energetic performance.

After performing at the event, I was hoping she would critique my performance even though I knew it would take a lot to impress someone like her. It wasn't until the next day that she mentioned my performance. She told me to call her the next time I go to Portugal because she wants to go with me to Joao Baiao's daytime television show "Portugal no Coracao" and introduce me herself. I was extremely honored when she also offered to be my Madrinha do Fado!!

I will have the privilege of performing once again with Anita Guerreiro March 15th at "Lar Dos Leoes" in Newark, New Jersey. Come watch if you're in the area. She gives a show that you don't want to miss!!

Anita Guerreiro's Biography from Fado.com

Uma das atracções mais típicas e queridas da revista, Anita Guerreiro continua ainda hoje a trabalhar e a ser uma autêntica preferida do público, embora actualmente na televisão, onde participa regularmente em telenovelas e séries de comédia.

Tal como muitos outros, Anita Guerreiro começou, com apenas sete anos, por ser uma das "miúdas", fadistas infantis que ficavam identificados com o bairro de onde vinham - sendo "a miúda do Intendente", bairro onde nascera em 1936.

Com apenas quinze anos de idade, em 1952, Anita Guerreiro (nome artístico, pois o seu verdadeiro nome é Bebiana Cardinalli) concorria a um passatempo do popular programa radiofónico Combóio das Seis e Meia.

Espantado com o que ouvia, o produtor do programa, Marques Vidal, convidou-a imediatamente para se juntar ao elenco e, poucas semanas depois, estreava-se como fadista no Café Luso. E antes de completar os vinte anos, era já vedeta de revista, género em que se estreou em 1955.

A Anita Guerreiro se deve a criação de um fado-canção que ficou na boca do povo e até Amalia gravou: Cheira a Lisboa, que criou em 1969 na revista Peço a Palavra.

Ironicamente, pouco depois desse sucesso colossal, Anita Guerreiro afastou-se da revista durante mais de uma década, apenas regressando em 1982. Mantém-se entretanto activa como fadista, cantando em casas de fados e actuando no estrangeiro.

The Future of Fado: Jovens Guitarristas!!

Five years ago, during one of my performances in my hometown of Perth Amboy, NJ, I met a boy, Michael da Silva, one year younger than I that told me that he loved Fado and was learning to play the guitar in hopes to accompany Fadistas in the future. His teacher is Alberto Resende, who besides from being an extremely talented guitarist, he also makes Portuguese and classic guitars and gives guitar lessons. Throughout the years, whenever I had the chance of being accompanied by Sr. Resende, I always asked him about his student and his progress. In October after my performance at the grand opening of Solar do Minho in Roselle Park, Michael approached me all grown up and told me that he's serious about Fado and that he found another young man, Diogo Arsenio who resides in NYC, that is learning to play the Portuguese guitar. After exchanging numbers, a few months later we finally met up to rehearse a few Fados and I am convinced that they are who are going to continue our tradition of Fado for the next generations to come. I am so happy to have met them and when we perform together I feel so proud to be on stage with them and an inexplicable feeling falls over me. I wish them all of the success in the world.