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Contrary to what even many Portuguese suppose, Fado has everything to do with the songs of the marches that represent the neighborhoods of Lisbon.

The festivities of the Popular Saints take place with the sound of popular music, the joyful root of Fado. The communities and parish councils of the most typical districts of Lisbon call the people to parade and support.

Fado singer Yola Dinis, from the cast of Café Luso, was godmother of the Bairro Alto march in 2015. This year the support of the Café Luso fado will be heard on Radio SIM.

“Singing is always a joy, but even more so at this age, because it is not easy to still have a little voice to dare to sing.”

The phrase, spoken these days by the fado singer Celeste Rodrigues, reveals her lucidity, the humility that personifies and dispels those who preach it, the feelings and vitality that run through this fado singer, from head to foot, and express themselves on a delicate and sonic wire of voice.

In her honor, some Fado friends joined the stage of the Tivoli BBVA Theater in Lisboa: Teresinha Landeiro, Fábia Rebordão, Kátia Guerreiro, Duarte, Hélder Moutinho and Jorge Fernando.

She was accompanied by Pedro Castro (Portuguese guitar), André Ramos (viola), Francisco Gaspar (bass guitar), and also the great-grandson Gaspar Varela (Portuguese guitar).

Celeste Rodrigues, dean of the fado, is by many respected and cherished. Every Friday and Saturday she goes to Bairro Alto, to the oldest fado house in Lisbon, Café Luso, where Portuguese and foreigners surrender to her presence, always waiting for the audacity to sing, as she likes, can and can.

The Portuguese Revolution of 1974 will be remembered in Paris with a “freedom party”, a conference on the challenges of democracy, a “fado cabaret” and a concert of “fados de libertad.

There will be the concert entitled “Fados em Liberdade” organized by the association La Gauche Cactus’, with fados “old or recent linked to the theme of freedom” .’

“In the history of fado, before the dictatorship there were very militant fates, anarchists, communists and republicans. In fado, there has always been a political tradition. During the dictatorship, censorship had a role and the dictatorship instrumentalized fado, but even in associative nights of fado and in certain letters, there were people who did not agree with the dictatorship, “said Jean-Luc Gonneau, vice president of the association.

In another initiative, the fado cabaret will be a mix between the fado house and the French cabaret. People will be sitting at round tables and listening to fado at the same time.”

The triple CD “Amália, É, Não É”, which includes unpublished works by Amália Rodrigues, from the period from 1968 to 1975, will be released in June (!). Frederico Santiago is the coordinator of the edition.

All of this material was recorded in the studios of Valentim de Carvalho, in Paço de Arcos, outside Lisbon, except four fados recorded in 1969, the second part of a performance by the fado singer at the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon.

There is more than one, this one is in Oporto.

The House of the Guitar (Casa da Guitarra) is a store of musical instruments, especially dedicated to the chordophones (musical instrument of strings) of the traditional music.

Project Casa da Guitarra was conceived by Alfredo Teixeira, it was born in 2012 and its main intention is to create a space where the construction and dissemination of traditional Portuguese chordophones is promoted.