Customer Reviews

Queen of the Fado

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You have to have this CD if any of the below is true.

1.You like Fado, the Best Musical Style of Portugal.
2.You already know that Amalia is indeed the Queen of Fado
3.You are aware of first two and now have to know that this is her Best CD.
4.You have absolutely no clue about Fado or Amalia, but are musically adventurous, because on both counts you will be amply rewarded with immeasurable joy.

Basically you have NO CHOICE but to have this particular CD since it will be your best introduction to both Fado and Amalia

Why now I have an urge to mention Cesaria Evora? Because she is another Queen that sings in Portuguese (she is from Cabo Verde)

Even though she is not a representative of Fado, she has her sad and romantic style common with Fado. She is another gem that you have to discover in deep see diving of world music and be glad you did.

Amalia's voice is just incredible. Her tone, her expression, her ability to shade pitch ever so slightly to emote. She's just flat out one of the greatest singers of the 20th century. Fans of fado of course know about her, but she ranks with Umm Kulthum, Judy Garland, Maria Callas, and few others who possess a great voice, seemingly limitless talent, and that most elusive of elements, soul. This recording or some such compilation should be in the collection of everyone who loves vocal music.

Amalia Rodrigues was the great tragic voice of the century and this album is a good demonstration of that! Listen well! She is imbelievable!

with her death, the last living legend has reached the "olympus". She was, without any doubt, the best of the select club of the imortal singers - Ella Fitzgerald, Oum Kalsoum, Edith Piaf.

NOW THAT SHE VANISHED THAT IS ONLY WHAT WE, PORTUGUESE AND THE WORLD, HAVE GOT TO REMEMBER HER. THE GREAT DIVA HAS GONE. GOD REST HER SOUL.

The title of this CD says it all. Amalia is and always will be the 'Queen of the FADO'. Even though this CD does not include some of the Amalia favorites it does show the tremendous range of the greatest interpreter of the FADO that will ever live. Nelson M. Gomes

Amalia died, but she lives in her music. This album isn't just a good one. It's a gift of the gods. If you like music, any kind of, you must have this or any Amalia's album. A must!

There's a bewildering number of Rodrigues "Queen of Fado" collections out there, as you have probably seen. How to choose, especially if like me you are new to fado (I came to it via Ana Moura) and you keep hearing about Rodrigues at every turn, but you don't have a lot of money? And why choose this one?

You can do what I did, and do the math: $5.99 for a download of 17 songs is a pretty good deal. I admit that this was a blind purchase; apart from some price comparison, I did no research. But not only do I have no listener's remorse whatsoever, even better, for the heirs of Rodrigues' estate and Amazon, is the fact that I want to buy another record or two of hers.

One thing to be aware of: the recording quality varies from song to song, reflecting the relative ages of the performances. In all but a couple of instances, though, Rodrigues' voice is clear and precise-sounding (though the same can't always be said of the sound of her accompanists).

Every (good) thing you've heard about Rodrigues is true. She was an extraordinary singer, period: she possessed an effortless, expressive voice (lighter than Moura's, but not fragile) that, somehow, calls attention not to itself but to the lovers she sings about. A song like "Nao E Desgrace Ser Pobre" is a case in point: She crescendos and decrescendos on a dime as she ranges up and down the scale, demonstrating (to me, at least) that she could have sung anything. Yet, amazingly, her technique doesn't come off as showy, and it's that combination of skill and lack of pretension that seems to me crucial to fado.

Speaking of that last point: it's rare to have one singer in a genre who truly is THE definitive performer, the one who effectively establishes for everyone else how to perform songs in that genre. In a narrowly-defined genre like fado, the singer can't herself sound limited; perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay Rodrigues is that she'll make you forget how narrowly-defined fado is, even as she stays completely and comfortably within those boundaries. She's that good.

My husband is of Portuguese extraction, and he says," Now this is the real thing!" I'm of Irish extraction and I can connect, too. Her music and voice go straight to the soul.

AMALIA died but she taught us alot. When I found out that she passed-away I left sad.The last time I saw her was at the VETERANS MEMORIAL AUDITORIM in PROVEDENCE RHODE ISLAND.AMALIA will be missed by us.