Ana Moura is Portuguese. She is a huge star of fado, this traditional music from Portugal that is compared to the blues.
This evening, July 3, she will be at the Théâtre Maisonneuve at Place des Arts to sing. For the Portuguese community here, it will undoubtedly be a great moment. What about the rest of us?
I will first start with a confession: I, who am the PANM360 collaborator who does the most reviews on music in Spanish and Portuguese, both in America and in Europe, I don’t like fado very much.
I can’t really explain why. I often find it heavy and tearful. I also probably have a prejudice against the Portuguese accent, which gives this language a much more guttural, dry sound than the smoothness of many Brazilian accents; particularly that of Rio de Janeiro.
But Ana Moura’s most recent album, Casa Guilhermina (2022), strives to confound my skepticism. The singer opens up to other influences, pop, electro, but especially African. After all, her mother is Angolan.
This mix began in 2012 with the album Desfado, produced by American musician Larry Klein, which displayed a more pop influence. Moreover, Ana Moura counts a certain Mick Jagger among her biggest fans. As did Prince, before his death.
Casa Guilhermina is more open to African and electronic influences, which also reflect the current music scene in Lisbon, where Africans, Cape Verdeans, Brazilians and Portuguese are creating a new sound, which mixes lots of music.
Ana Moura is undoubtedly not the most daring artist in this field, but her openness is to be welcomed. She could have sat on her laurels and sold tons of albums. She chose to follow the innovative scene.
This evening, we will see how this mixture materializes on stage. There will undoubtedly be a lot of emotion among the Portuguese-speaking spectators.
