Raquel Tavares

The award-winning Raquel Tavares is one of the most important voices in contemporary fado. Residing in the heart of Lisbon's Alfama district, she was born with the music in her DNA. She began singing in competitions at age five, and by 12, had won more than a dozen first prizes, including the prestigious Grande Noite do Fado (Great Night of Fado) award in 1997. At 15, she issued her debut album, Porque Canto Fado, on Lisbon's premier independent label Metro-Sound, and gave concerts throughout Lisbon while continuing to sing in competitions. In 2002, at the invitation of the "King of Fado," Fernando Maurício, she began singing the classic repertoire professionally in Lisbon's great fado houses. She also studied with many of the music's great songwriters including Maurício, Hermínia Silva, Lucília do Carmo, Berta Cardoso, and Beatriz da Conceição among them. In 2004, Tavares played a small part, as a fado singer, in Mário Barroso's film O Milagre Segundo Salomé ("The Miracle According to Salomé").

Tavares signed to the city's Movieplay label in 2005 and issued her self-titled offering the following year, which won her the Amália Rodrigues and Casa da Imprensa awards for best new female artist. She started touring, playing festival and concert stages across Europe, North Africa, the U.K., Australia, and Canada. She followed with 2008's Bairro, that entered the Portuguese charts at number ten and peaked at number three. It would be her last recording for eight years. That year, along with singing partner João Tiago, she entered the Eurovision Song Contest and the duo took eighth place. In addition to touring, Tavares began an in-depth study of the roots of Brazilian samba. In 2012, she played the first of several concerts with Ivan Lins. In January of 2013 she repeated the feat in Rio de Janeiro. In April she curated and performed "Nem Todo o Fado é Triste, Nem Todo o Samba é Alegre" ("Not all fado is sad, not all samba is joyful") at Lisbon's famed Espaço Brasil. The concert, performed during Portugal's Year of Brazil, showcased both the official songbooks of samba and traditional fado. The following year she performed at the international cross-cultural, multi-disciplinary Book Fair celebration in Bogotá, and at the Gabriel Garcia Marquéz Cultural Center.

Tavares signed to Sony in 2015 and the following year issued Raquel, an album that began with fado but also tracked through samba, MPB, and other styles. Buoyed by her concerts, the album was certified gold in Portugal and topped the album charts. She performed at Lisbon's NOS Alive Festival in the company of the Pixies, Arcade Fire, and numerous other artists. She was the only fado performer to share a stage with them. As a result, she was received enthusiastically by an entirely new audience full of indie rock fans and received press notices from the U.S., Indo-Asia, and Europe. In November 2017, she released her second Sony effort, Roberto Carlos por Raquel Tavares: Do Fundo Do Meu Coração, an homage to the great singer/songwriter. The set included a pair of duets in "Debaixo Dos Caracóis Dos Seus Cabelos" with Caetano Veloso, and "De Tanto Amor" with Ana Carolina. Again, it topped the album charts, remaining there for more than ten weeks and was ultimately certified double gold. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi