50 Best Fado [3 CD set]

A shawl, a guitar, a voice and heartfelt emotion: these are the ingredients of Fado, the celebrated form of world music that captures what it is to be Portuguese. Fado is the song that harnesses the Portuguese soul. Deep-seated feelings, disappointments in love, the sense of sadness and longing for someone who has gone away, everyday events, the ups and downs of life - inspiration for Fado can come from almost any source.

Fado songs are usually performed by a solo singer, male or female, traditionally accompanied by a wire-strung acoustic guitar and the Portuguese guitar - a pear-shaped cittern with twelve wire strings, unique to Portugal, which also has an extensive solo repertoire. The past few decades have witnessed this instrumental accompaniment expanded to two Portuguese guitars, a guitar and a bass guitar.

Traditional Fado can be sung in many different ways. The most respected names are those of Amália Rodrigues, Hermínia Silva, Lucília do Carmo and Maria Teresa de Noronha, whilst Alfredo Marceneiro is one of the best-known male voices, famous for the way he sings the Fado.

A new generation of Fado singers has brought us fresh voices to listen to, such as Mariza, Carminho, Camané, or also Ricardo Ribeiro, Mísia, Kátia Guerreiro, Mafalda Arnauth and Aldina Duarte. Besides these singers, there are many others who have given Fado a new contemporary feel without taking away any of its emotional appeal. Fado is performed professionally on the concert circuit and in small 'Fado houses', and by amateurs in numerous grass-root associations located throughout older neighborhoods of Lisbon. Informal tuition by older, respected exponents takes place in traditional performance spaces and often over successive generations within the same families. The dissemination of Fado through emigration and the world music circuit has reinforced its image as a symbol of Portuguese identity, leading to a process of cross-cultural exchange involving other musical traditions.

Nowadays, Fado is almost a symbol of Portugal, a celebrated form of world music that has retained its traditional qualities but moved with the times. Amália, the world-renowned singer who brought Fado to the great concert halls of Europe and the attention of international audiences, has found a worthy successor in Mariza, who continues to tour overseas, taking the Fado to an even wider audience.