Fado singer Aldina Duarte makes her debut today, in her own name, at the Coliseu dos Recreios, in Lisbon, presenting her new album “Metade-Metade”, in which she addresses climate issues, poverty and the “majesty” of April.
Aldina Duarte will perform for an audience of 400 people on the stage of the Sala das Portas de Santo Antão.
The fado singer will be joined by musicians Ana Isabel Dias (harp), Bernardo Romão (Portuguese guitar) and Rogério Ferreira (viola).
The new album, as Aldina Duarte said in an interview with the Lusa news agency, is a declaration of love for poetry and freedom, and a warning about the human relationship with nature.
The title “Metade-Metade” “is due”, he explained, to his partnership with the rapper Capicua, with half being his and half the author of the 11 poems interpreted in the 11 traditional fados that make up the album.
For Aldina Duarte, it’s important for fado to cross paths with other people who aren’t from fado, but who respect its rules and pave the way, as happened with Capicua, in terms of language.
“With the starting point being that they respect fado and are aware that they are entering a very old, very rich art in which you have to work with tweezers,” the result is positive.
One of the songs is called “Majestade [25 de Abril]”, which he sings in Fado Triplicado, by José Marques ‘Piscalarete’, and which he described as his “first openly political fado”.
“A biographical fado of a social class, which gives voice to the poor, which is where I come from, and which was the majority of the Portuguese population before April 25,” he recalled.
“April 25th is the most important date in my life, it was the first date I celebrated, because there was no birthday for the poor,” said the fado singer, whose artistic career dates back to the fall of the dictatorship.