Carminho

Carminho

“I may not know who you are – but I know who I am.”

Yes, she does. It couldn't be any other way: she can sing these words from the heart, because she has always known that to sing Fado was her destiny, but she wouldn't commit to it before she knew who she was and who she could be. 

Carminho is tremendously adored by the Portuguese public due to her authenticity and formidable stage presence. Her albums have been awarded with Platinum, the "Time Out" magazine called her debut "the most impressive Fado-debut in decades". Being highly requested internationally in the last recent year she has performed in the most prestigious concert houses around the world - from Barbican Centre/London to Elbphilharmonie to sold-out Konzerthaus Vienna.

"Maria" is her fifth album and probably the most personal body of work to date since it’ll feature several self-written tracks by Carminho herself. Carminho considers it a dialogue between herself and two fado singers who blazed the trail for her: Beatriz da Conceição and Teresa Siqueira (her mother). Furthermore, she was also involved in the Executive Production of this project, alongside João Pedro Ruela, Diogo Alves, Marta Pelágio and Ruela Music. London Jazz News calls it "a beautifully realized, remarkably varied yet uniformly gorgeous album." 

The album features the musicians Bernardo Couto (on Guitarra Portuguesa)  on  “O Menino e a Cidade”, “A Mulher Vento” and “Se Vieres”. Collabs by José Manuel Neto on “O Começo” and “Quero Um Cavalo De Várias Cores” – as well as  Luis Guerreiro on three tracks: “Sete Saias”, “Poeta” and “Pop Fado”.

 Besides featuring Flávio César Cardoso on the traditional instrument Viola de Fado, José Marino de Freitas on Acoustic Bass; João Paulo Esteves da Silva on Piano and Filipe Cunha Monteiro on Pedal Steel / Electric guitar, Carminho plays electric guitar on “Estrela”.

Maria is the follow-up to 2016's Carminho Canta Tom Jobim: a collection of Jobim's songs, featuring Banda Nova, the Brazilian legend's band from the last decade of his life. Made at the suggestion of Jobim's family, the album included special performances by Marisa Monte, Chico Buarque, and Maria Bethânia. The album received critical praise, with London's Sunday Times saying that Carminho's "approach grows ever more subtle, the austere phrasing drawing out the poetry in each lyric."

In 2009  Carmo Rebelo de Andrade, Carminho short, released her first album. “Fado” was its name, “Fado” was what her heart yearned for. She had grown up listening to the Fado records that her parents had at home, or the Fado meetings they organised, since her mother, Teresa Siqueira, was herself a singer. She started to sing it while yet a teenager. And all those who'd heard Carminho knew how good she was, and how far she could go singing it. But she wanted to know more about herself first – so she went to college, traveled the world, grounded herself in life. Then she came back and gave all of her to Fado.

“Fado” had been long awaited. And it became one of the most acclaimed debuts in the recent history of this most Portuguese of genres, the genre that made Amália and Mariza and Cristina Branco into worldwide stars. First, Portugal surrendered: “Fado” went Platinum (a remarkable result in this day and age, let alone for a debut album). Then the world: Songlines named “Fado” its best album of 2011; Carminho performed all over Europe, at Womex 2011 in Copenhagen, at UNESCO in Paris while Portugal was promoting Fado's candidacy to Immaterial World Heritage status. Spanish heartthrob Pablo Alborán invited her for a duet, “Perdoname”, on his latest album (with a swooning video shot in Lisbon) and the song became an instant chart-topper throughout the Latin countries.

2012, her next album, “Alma” - “Soul”came out, a title that reflects just how much Carminho pours herself into her singing. Reunited with the same team that accompanied her in “Fado”, led by producer Diogo Clemente, Carminho's sophomore album combines material both classic and new. There are cover versions of Fados created by other singers, like Amália Rodrigues, Maria Amélia Proença or Fernanda Maria, but also of songs written by the great Brazilian songwriter Chico Buarque and by Vinicius de Moraes, one of the fathers of Bossa Nova. And among the new material written specifically for this album, there are also new settings of the traditional Fado modes over which Carminho sings her own words or those of poets like António Gedeão.

Carminhos following album 'Canto' was number1 in her Portuguese homeland and reached gold status.
Guests include Brazilian musicians like Nana Vasconcelos (percussion), Jaques Morelenbaum (cello) and multi-instrumentalist Carlinhos Brown as well as Spanish guitarist Javier Limón. Caetano Veloso wrote the lyrics to "O sol, Eu e Tu" and the Brazilian star singer Marisa Monte sang her song "Chuva No Mar",as a duet with Carminho on “Canto”.