Portuguese Music- Its origin and popularity
Portugal is very well known internationally in the music arena for its traditions in Fado, which is a popular music type in the country. Portuguese Music has undergone various mutations in the earlier part of the twentieth century.
Regional folk music has remained popular within Portugal but modernized and updated in many ways. The most important concept in Portuguese music is the Saudade which can be closely translated as yearning in English.
Fado
The concept of Fado (or Fate in Portuguese) took rise in Lisbon as the music language of the urban poor people. It is often compared to the Rembetika music of the Greeks. Typical Fado songs have harsh lyrics, and the singer generally succumbs to sadness, loneliness and poverty; nevertheless he is firmly controlled and maintains his dignity.
Fado appears to have been born at the beginning of the nineteenth century; at the time when immigrants from Brazil were pouring in – their music used to be the Lundum and Fofa dances.
These used to be very crude and criticized by the upper class of the society, but very soon these formed a basis for the Fado. Even the Portuguese literature, especially of modinha ballads and quatrain couplets were also an integral part of early Fado. In the later part of the 19th century, the city of Coimbra did develop a remarkable Fado scene.