The song “Na Escola”, by Os Quatro e Meia, a pop-rock group formed in Coimbra, was considered the Best Song of the Year 2023 in Portugal in a vote by the aRi[t]mar contest, it was announced today.
aRi[t]mar – a name that combines ritmar (from rhythm) and rimar (from poetry) – is a project promoted by the Official Language School of Santiago de Compostela to promote music and poetry and bring the cultures and languages of Galicia and Portugal closer together.
In a statement, the organization announced today that the award for Best Music of the Year 2023 in Portugal went to Os Quatro e Meia, a group made up of six musicians whose origins lie in a university meeting that took place in 2013 in Coimbra.
The group, which rose to fame in Portugal in 2017 with the album “Pontos nos Is”, and in 2022 took part in the Festival da Canção with the song “Amanhã”, won the prize with the song “Na Escola”.
The Portuguese band is made up of João Cristóvão (violin and mandolin), Mário Ferreira (accordion and vocals), Pedro Figueiredo (percussion), Ricardo Almeida (vocals and guitar), Rui Marques (double bass) and Tiago Nogueira (vocals and guitar).
In the case of Galicia, the song chosen as the best of 2023 was Morena, by De Ninghures, a song released in October which, “as well as being one of the band’s most danceable, is a good example of the confluences that occur in this group,” describes the organization.
This is a group with influences from Iberian musical traditions, particularly Galician, as well as Maghreb and Latin American sounds, made up of musicians from Galician municipalities such as Carvalho, Santiago de Compostela and Fonsagrada.
Also winning awards in Portugal were Miguel Araújo with “Sagitário” and Carolina Deslandes, who competed for the prize with “Saia da Carolina”.
In Galicia, second and third place went to Caamaño&Ameixeiras and Mondra.
“aRi[t]mar is initially a cultural educational project […] that aims to disseminate current Galician-Portuguese music and poetry, and to bring the culture and language of the two countries closer together within the framework of the development of the Valentín Paz-Andrade Law for the use of Portuguese teaching and links with Lusophony,” the statement concludes.
This was the ninth edition of the competition and this year 9,850 votes were cast, “which represents an increase of more than 40% on the previous edition”.
