Amália Rodrigues - Centenary of its Birth

In 2020, the Centenary of her Birth is marked through a vast program.

The official opening of the Commemorations of the Centenary of the Birth of Amália Rodrigues will take place in Lisbon, on July 1, 2020, extending the celebrations during the year 2021.

Universal artist, Amália Rodrigues (1920-1999) is one of the most important personalities in the history of music in the 20th century. Her international career was one of the longest and most global in the 20th century.

In the 21st century, her legacy remains alive, modern and timeless. In the splendor of her metamorphoses and cycles, Amália Rodrigues’ vast phonographic heritage has long affirmed her as one of the best singers of our times.

Since her professional debut in 1939, at Retiro da Severa, Amália has been a phenomenon of popularity. She overwhelmed audiences, sparked passions and the most lively debates. In the post-war period, Amália Rodrigues was already a major figure in the Portuguese music scene.

With an absolute success in Portugal, her international career was one of the most apotheotic and the most global of the entire 20th century. The world was her natural stage and her voice the privileged instrument to sing all Portuguese poetry, from the troubadour and Renaissance repertoire to contemporary literary creation.

In Spain, Brazil, Mexico, the United States, France, Italy or Japan, Amália Rodrigues achieved an unprecedented consecration, successively acclaimed and idolized by the public and critics. Throughout the world and over the years, Amália Rodrigues has received the most prestigious awards and the highest decorations.

Popular and erudite, modern and timeless, the legacy of Amália Rodrigues gives us, in images, the powerful immanence of the great themes of our culture. In the chiaroscuro of her voice, we recognize the most universal expression of emotions in an unlimited inventory of feelings. Heteronym of Portugal, from her voice we made our home and not even her international media coverage managed to erase the feeling of closeness to which her disarming simplicity has accustomed us.

But just like the song, Amália Rodrigues belongs to everyone and belongs to no one.