Something about Fado

"Never cheerful and much too solemn, it is never danced."
— Habeeb Salloum, The Captivating Fado

Discovering Fado

I must have heard about fado at some time or other— I knew it was supposed to be a sort of Portuguese blues— but I had never actually heard any fado until a few years ago, when this music video turned up. The woman singing had exquisite technique and the most expressive style I had ever heard; even though I didn't understand the Portuguese words, I found the music heart-rendingly beautiful. That was my introduction to Mísia and fado.

Once I had bought all of Mísia's CDs, including a few that aren't distributed in the US, I started buying CDs by other fado singers (fadistas). With the help of many anthology CDs, I've discovered several other fadistas that I like almost as much as Mísia.

What's Special About Fado?

At its best, fado is music the way I like it. That means emphasis on the melody, often in a minor key, and sometimes incorporating an unexpected note or chord. (Think suspension, anticipation, and so on.)

Some writers say fado is like the blues, but I hear many differences. While both are folk music in origin, they are different in style and technique. For example, rhythm is more important in the blues than in fado, where melody is paramount. Also, fado usually has an independent accompaniment (on the Portuguese guitar), sometimes amounting to an obbligato.

Fado songs and blues songs both deal with sadness, but fado lyrics are more resigned, as you might expect— the word fado means fate, or destiny that nothing can change.

A word often associated with fado is saudade, which is cognate with Spanish soledad, meaning loneliness. More than just loneliness, saudade means nostalgic longing: yearning for what is lost, or for what might have been. In an interview, Mísia speaks of traditional fados that in Portugal are said to "make stones cry."

To give you an idea of the subject matter of fado, here are a few song titles.

Claws of the feelings	Living without me
Dance of sorrows	Sweet love, bitter love
Don't call me by that name	Parting is dying a little
Hours of blackness	Rejected rose
I was born to die with you	Sad destiny
If I had known that you felt	Speech of a woman alone
Lament of the wild roses	Waltz of the shadows

Fado Singing and Mísia

Fado singers like Mísia use several techniques to make the music more expressive, including wide dynamics, tempo rubato, and different vocal timbres. One such technique is the exagerrated fermata, during which the accompaniment comes to a halt while the singer lingers on a note or phrase.

Fado singing often involves improvisation, but not in the same way jazz does. Fado singing is nothing like scat singing, for example, which is wordless improvisation around the notes, and emotionally cool. Improvisation in fado singing is emotionally hot, intended to augment the emotion implied by the lyrics.

Mísia's singing expresses passion, not by violence and noise, but by means of virtuosity— of art. Mísia has said, "Sometimes when I am singing, people say, 'Ah, this is a very nice song' and I say, No! I don't want a very nice song. I want an intense feeling."

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Last updated on 8/19/2025