Coimbra
—  Cidade/City  —
A panoramic view over the city and River Mondego, from the university
Flag Seal
Coimbra Location of the city of Coimbra
Coordinates: 40°12′40.26″N 8°25′44.96″W / 40.2111833°N 8.4291556°W / 40.2111833; -8.4291556Coordinates: 40°12′40.26″N 8°25′44.96″W / 40.2111833°N 8.4291556°W / 40.2111833; -8.4291556
Country	Portugal
Region	Centro
Subregion	Baixo Mondego
Municipality	Coimbra
Câmara Municipal de Coimbra	fl. 456
Founder	Afonso Henriques
Municipality	Coimbra
GovernmentThe administration and legal authority is invested in the Câmara Municipal of the Municipality of Coimbra
• Presidente	João Paulo Barbosa de Melo (PSD/CDS-PP/PPM)
Elevation	43 m (141 ft)
Population (2001)
• Total	101,069
	Refers to the urbanized portions of the parishes of Almedina, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Santo António dos Olivais, São Bartolomeu and Sé Nova only
Demonym	Conimbricense
Time zone	WET (UTC0)
• Summer (DST)	WEST (UTC+1)
Postal Zone	(+351) 239 XX XX XX
ISO 3166 code	PT
Website	http://www.cm-coimbra.pt

Coimbra (Portuguese pronunciation: [kuˈĩbɾɐ]) is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the Portuguese-speaking world.

According 2001 Census, provided by the Portuguese Instituto Nacional de Estatística (English: National Institute of Statistics), the city proper had a population of 101,069.^[1] The city of Coimbra is one of the most important urban centres in Portugal (after the much larger cities of Lisbon and Porto), playing a central role in the northern-central littoral and interior of the country. It is the principal centre in the Centro region, the District of Coimbra and the Baixo Mondego subregion.

There are many archaeological structures which date to the Roman era, when Coimbra was the settlement of Aeminium, such as its well-preserved aqueduct and cryptoporticus. Similarly, buildings from the period when Coimbra served as the capital of Portugal (from 1131 to 1255) still remain. During the Late Middle-Ages, with its decline as the political centre of the Kingdom of Portugal, Coimbra began to evolve into a major cultural centre, helped by the university finally established there in 1537. The university, one of the oldest in Europe, apart from attracting many European and international students, is visited by tourists for its monuments and history.

History[link]

The west façade of Coimbra's Old Cathedral (Sé Velha), one of the best-preserved Romanesque buildings in Portugal

The Manueline façade of the Monastery of Santa Cruz, final resting-place of the first Portuguese monarch (Afonso Henriques).

The Cathedral of Sé Nova

The city, located over a hill by the river Mondego, was called Aeminium in Roman times. During late Antiquity it became the seat of a Diocesis substituting the nearby city of Conímbriga, which had been captured and partially plundered by invading Germanic peoples in 465 and 468, adopting later the name of the destroyed city. After the Roman city of Civita Aeminium, between 586 and 640, the Visigoths altered the name of the town to Emínio. The Moors occupied Coimbra (Arabic: قُلُمْرِيَة‎, Qulumriyah) around the year 711, turning it into an important commercial link between the Christian North and Muslim South. The city was reconquered by Ferdinand I of León in 1064.

After being reconquered by the Christians, Coimbra became the capital of a new County (County of Coimbra), governed by the Mozarab Sesnando (Sisnando Davides), later incorporated into the County of Portugal. In the mid-12th century, the first Portuguese King, Afonso Henriques, turned Coimbra into the capital of the new Kingdom, a condition the city would keep until the year 1255. Many important monuments of the city date from this early period, like the Old Cathedral, the Church of St. James (Igreja de Santiago) and the Santa Cruz Monastery, which was the most important Portuguese monastic institution at the time.

As early as the Middle Ages, Coimbra was divided into an upper city (Cidade Alta or Almedina), where the aristocracy and the clergy lived, and the low city (Cidade Baixa) by the Mondego River, where most commercial activities took place. The city was encircled by a fortified wall, of which some remnants are still visible like the Almedina Gate (Porta da Almedina). The most important work in Gothic style in the city is the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha, founded on the left side of the river Mondego by Queen Elizabeth in the first half of the 14th century. The Monastery was located too close to the river, and frequent floods forced the nuns to abandon it in the 17th century, when the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Nova was built uphill. The Queen's magnificent gothic tomb was also transferred to the new convent. The ruins of the old convent were unearthed in the 2000s, and can be seen today in the left bank of the river.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, during the Age of Discovery, Coimbra was again one of the main artistic centres of Portugal thanks to both local and royal patronage. Coimbra bishops, religious orders and King Manuel I supported artists like Diogo Pires (father and son), Marcos Pires, João de Castilho, Diogo de Castilho and the Frenchmen, João de Ruão and Nicholas of Chanterene, among others, who left important manueline and renaissance works in the town. Dating from this period are the remodelling (in manueline style) of the Santa Cruz Monastery, including the tombs of Kings Afonso Henriques and Sancho I, the renaissance Manga Fountain, the altarpieces and triumphal portal of the Old Cathedral, among other works.

The University of Coimbra, was founded as Studium Generale in Lisbon in 1290 by King Dinis I. The University was relocated to Coimbra in 1308, but in 1338 the King D. Afonso IV make the University return to Lisbon. The University was definitively transferred to the premises of Coimbra Royal Palace in 1537 by King John III. Since then, the city life has revolved around the state-run university, and for many decades, several colleges (colégios) created to provide an alternative to the official form of teaching and established by the religious orders in the city, which were later gradually discontinued through the times with the secularization of teaching in Portugal. Built in the 18th century, the Joanina Library (Biblioteca Joanina), a Baroque library, is other notable landmark of the ancient university. The Baroque University Tower (Torre da Universidade), from the school of the German architect Ludovice and built between 1728 and 1733, is the city's «ex-libris».

In 1772, the prime-minister of king José I, the Marquis of Pombal, undertook a deep reform of the University, where the study of the sciences assumed vast importance. The collections of scientific instruments and material acquired since then are nowadays gathered in the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra, and constitute one of the most important historical science collections in Europe.

The first half of the 19th century was a difficult period for Coimbra, being invaded by French troops under the command of Andoche Junot and André Masséna during the Peninsular War. A force of 4,000 Portuguese militia led by Nicholas Trant dealt Masséna a heavy blow when it recaptured the city on 6 October 1810. In March 1811, the militia successfully held the place against the retreating French army. The city recovered in the second half of the century with infrastructure improvements like the telegraph, gas light, the railway system and a railway bridge over the Mondego river.

Apart from the monuments already mentioned, it is also worth a visit to the New Cathedral of Coimbra (17th century) and the Machado de Castro Museum, the second most important one in Portugal, housed in the former Palace of the Bishops. The city also houses the University of Coimbra General Library, Portuguese second biggest library, after the National Library in Lisbon, and the Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra from the 18th century.

Coimbra is also known for the reduced child-scale buildings in the Portugal dos Pequenitos park, an educational theme park built during the Estado Novo. Its buildings are scale copies of Portuguese architectural landmarks and were completed in the 1950s.

Geography[link]

The historic city of Coimbra is located in central Portugal, 120 km south of Porto, 195 km north of Lisbon. One of Portugal's biggest crossroads, Coimbra is served by the A1, the main highway of Portugal. It is set by the Mondego River, about 40 km east of Figueira da Foz, a neighbour coastal city with several beaches, summer and seaport facilities on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Just outside the municipality, there are also several picturesque mountain towns such as Lousã and Penacova and spa towns and villages such as Luso, Buçaco and Curia.

With a dense urban grid the city of Coimbra is famous for its monuments, churches, libraries, museums, parks, nightlife, healthcare and shopping facilities, but above all for its intense cultural life, centered on the University of Coimbra, one of the oldest universities in Europe. This relevance within the context of the country's cultural life can be seen in the large number of writers, artists and academics connected with the city, which has thus secured throughout its history a reputation as the Lusa Atenas (Lusitanian Athens). For details, see the 'Culture' and 'Famous inhabitants' sections below.

A view of Coimbra's University Hill as seen from the Mondego River

The city of Coimbra (the built-up urban area) consists of six civil parishes:

• Almedina
• Santa Clara
• Santa Cruz
• Santo António dos Olivais
• São Bartolomeu
• Sé Nova

Economy[link]

Praça do Comércio (Commerce Square) in the Baixa of Coimbra.

Coimbra-A railway station.

The wealth of the city rests mostly on its University of Coimbra with about 20,000 students – the city has a total of 35,000 higher education students considering the other higher education institutions based there – but also in shopping, technology and health sciences industry, administrative offices, financial services, law firms and specialized medical care. The city has many private clinics, medical offices and two large independent state hospital centres: the H.U.C. – Hospitais da Universidade de Coimbra, which is a university hospital, and the C.H.C. – Centro Hospitalar de Coimbra, which includes a general hospital. Coimbra has also the regional branch of the national cancer hospital – the I.P.O. – Instituto Português de Oncologia, as well as a military hospital. The Instituto Nacional de Medicina Legal, the state-run forensic science institute of Portugal, is headquartered in Coimbra.

Notable companies based in the municipality of Coimbra include software companies Critical Software and Ciberbit which have their global headquarters in the city, mechanical and electronics engineering company Active Space Technologies, telemetry and Machine to Machine company ISA, Cimpor's cement factory in Souselas (CIMPOR Souselas), the pan-European service facility of Olympus Corporation, the pharmaceuticals companies Bluepharma and BASI, the iron foundry Fucoli-Somepal and several ceramics, food processing (Probar produces cold meat products and Dan Cake produces sponge cakes and swiss rolls), textiles, wine, civil and engineering construction, architecture, public works and housing construction firms. Handicraft industry is well represented by traditional tapestry and pottery manufacture, and the surroundings of the city have besides forestry, dynamic horticulture production, vineyards and livestock raising. The Instituto Pedro Nunes (Pedro Nunes Institute), a business incubator, dynamically hosts several start-ups which are usually dedicated to technology-related businesses and became independent spin-off companies headquartered across the whole region.

Coimbra has a fresh produce open-air market on every 7th and 23rd days of the month at Feira dos 7 e dos 23, and a large fresh produce market in downtown at Mercado D. Pedro V. The Baixa (downtown) of Coimbra has many coffeehouses and bakeries, and features several specialty shops selling all kind of products in typical old-fashioned architectural surroundings. Large commercial facilities with car park, include a medium-sized shopping center (CoimbraShopping); two larger shopping centers with hypermarket, restaurants, movie theaters and several shops with a selection of some of Portugal's and the world's most famous and stylish international brands (Centro Comercial Dolce Vita and Forum Coimbra); and two retail parks found on the fringes of the city, offering an alternative to the busy city centre (Retail Park Mondego in Taveiro, and Coimbra Retail Park in Eiras).

Transportation[link]

The two banks of Mondego river at Coimbra, are linked by three main bridges: the Ponte do Açude; the Ponte de Santa Clara (Santa Clara bridge), which is the oldest, and the Ponte Rainha Santa also known as Ponte Europa, finished in 2004. The Ponte Pedonal de Pedro e Inês was is the ultimate bridge being constructed and is the only footbridge in the city.

The city is internally connected by an extensive bus network, the SMTUC (Serviços Municipalizados de Transportes Urbanos de Coimbra, Coimbra Municipality Urban Transport Services) and the Coimbra trolleybus system (the only such system in Portugal). In the past, the city also had a tram network (some are now parked inside a transportation museum). Taxicabs are also available, and are recognizable as cream or black and green (black car with green rooftop) taxis. The city is a hub for interregional bus services for all the country and abroad. A light-rail metro system, Metro Mondego, is currently being built.

Coimbra has several rail stations. The principal station Coimbra-B is on the main line between Porto and Lisbon. From this, a small spur runs to Coimbra-A, the main station in the city centre. A small regional rail line (Linha da Lousã) also runs from Coimbra Parque at the south edge of the city centre. From Coimbra-Parque is possible to travel to Miranda do Corvo, Lousã and Serpins, among others. Also it is possible to travel by train between Coimbra and Figueira da Foz (Ramal de Alfarelos), and Coimbra, Guarda and Vilar Formoso (Linha da Beira Alta [international]).

Coimbra is served by motorway A1 which connects Lisbon to Porto.

A regional airfield is located in Cernache (Aeródromo Municipal Bissaya Barreto) (CBP) [PCO], 7.5 km SW of the city downtown. With a 920 metre runway and Flight Information Service until the sunset, this regional airport has all the fundamental facilities for private flights.

Education[link]

The main square and buildings of the historic block of the University of Coimbra

The interior stacks of the Joanina Library, one of the oldest collections in Portugal

Coimbra has been called A cidade dos estudantes (The city of the students) or Lusa-Atenas (Lusitan-Athens), mainly because it is the site of the oldest and one of the largest universities in Portugal – the University of Coimbra, a public university whose origins can be traced back to the 13th century. Nowadays, it has students from 70 different nationalities; almost 10% of its students are foreigners, making it Portugal's most international university.

Coimbra is also the place where the oldest and biggest university students' union of Portugal was founded – the Associação Académica de Coimbra (Academic Association of Coimbra), established in 1887.

Besides that, there are also some other schools and institutes of higher education in the city: the Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, a public polytechnic institute; the Escola Superior de Enfermagem de Coimbra, a public nursing school; and some private higher education institutions such as the Instituto Superior Miguel Torga; the Instituto Superior Bissaya Barreto; the Escola Universitária Vasco da Gama and finally, the Escola Universitária das Artes de Coimbra, an art school.

A large number of higher education students from all of Portugal chose Coimbra's higher learning institutions to study, due to the wide availability of degrees offered in different fields, the student-friendly environment of the city, and the prestige of many of its learning institutions allied to the ancient tradition of Coimbra as the historical capital of higher studies in Portugal.

The city has also a large number of public and private basic and secondary schools, among these some of the best-ranked in the country, like Escola Secundária Infanta D. Maria (public), Escola Secundária José Falcão (public), "Escola EB2/3 Martim de Freitas" (public) and Colégio Rainha Santa Isabel (private), as well as several kindergartens and nurseries. There is also the Coimbra Hotel and Tourism School.

Culture[link]

Coimbra fado[link]

Fado de Coimbra (Coimbra Fado) is a highly stylized genre of fado born in the city of Coimbra. Guitar player Carlos Paredes and singer Zeca Afonso, are among its most renowned and historical figures.

Orfeon Académico de Coimbra, the oldest and most famous academic choir in Portugal, an autonomous organization of the students' union Associação Académica de Coimbra, established in 1880 by a law student of the University of Coimbra (UC), and the fado section of UC's Associação Académica de Coimbra itself, are important organizations in Coimbra fado promotion and preservation.

According to tradition, to applaud fado in Lisbon one would clap his hands, while in Coimbra cough as if clearing the throat is the typical way.

Student festivals[link]

Undergraduate Medicine students participating in Coimbra's Queima das Fitas parade

Coimbra is also known for its university students' festivals. Two are held every year. The first one, Latada or Festa das Latas ("The Tin Can Parade") is a homecoming parade that occurs at the beginning of the academic year, and is a welcome to the new university students (Caloiros).

The Festa das Latas goes back to the 19th century when the Coimbra students felt the need to express their joy at finishing the school year in as loud a way as possible, using everything at their disposal that would make noise, namely tin cans. The highlight of this festival, which now takes place at the beginning of the academic year (November) is the special parade known as the Latada. After marching through the streets of the city the new students are "baptized" in the Mondego River thus entering into the Coimbra academic fraternity. The 2nd year's students are awarded their Grelos (a small ribbon). The Grelo is a small, woollen ribbon with the color(s) of the student's faculty that is attached to a student's briefcase. Previous to this, at the morning the students must have visited the Dom Pedro V market where they must get a turnip to sustain the Caloiros during the day's festivities. Besides the tin cans they have tied to their legs, the new students wear all kinds of costumes made up according to the creativity and imagination of their godmothers or godfathers who are older students. They also carry placards with ironic criticisms alluding to certain teachers, the educational system, national events and leaders.

The second one, Queima das Fitas ("The Burning of the Ribbons"), takes place at the end of the second semester (usually in the beginning of May) and it is one of the biggest student parties in all Europe. It lasts for 8 days, one for each University of Coimbra's Faculty: Letras (Letters), Direito (Law), Medicina (Medicine), Ciências e Tecnologia (Sciences and Technology), Farmácia (Pharmacy), Economia (Economics), Psicologia e Ciências da Educação (Psychology and Education Sciences) and Ciências do Desporto e Educação Física (Sports Sciences and Physical Education).

Although being University of Coimbra's festivals, other higher education students of Coimbra such as the polytechnic's students or private institution's students, are invited every year by the University of Coimbra students who manage and organise this events, to participate in the Tin Can Parade and also in the Burning of the Ribbons. The academic festivities are opened to the entire city community and attract a large number of national and international tourists as well.

Reportedly, during Queima das Fitas, more beer is drank during one week than Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany.^{[citation needed]}

Music acts[link]

Coimbra has a lively music scene that caters for most tastes with lots of festivals and events beyond the academic festivals and the traditional Coimbra fado genre. It boasts several live music venues, and some of the most popular club nights and music festivals in Portugal. Moreover, the Conservatório de Música de Coimbra,^[2] the music-related departments of the Associação Académica de Coimbra and the music programmes of the Faculty of Letters of the University of Coimbra are regularly cited among the top music schools in the country. Modern bands and artists with some degree of recognition in the Portuguese music scene include André Sardet, Bunnyranch, WrayGunn and JP Simões.

Media[link]

The Centro region is the third-largest regional media market in Portugal. The Portuguese public radio and television broadcaster Rádio e Televisão de Portugal has regional offices and studios in Coimbra. The Diário de Coimbra and the Diário As Beiras are the two major newspapers based in Coimbra. The students' union of the University of Coimbra has also notable media like the Rádio Universidade de Coimbra radio station and A Cabra newspaper.

Leisure[link]

Aspect of the Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra

Accommodation[link]

There is a wide variety of accommodation available, ranging from the camping-park or one of the many inexpensive hostels to the charming downtown hotels and international chain hotels.

Parks/gardens[link]

Coimbra has many attractive and pleasant green spaces such as parks, playgrounds, gardens and forests. The most famous park in the city is probably the Botanical Garden of the University of Coimbra, the fifth oldest in the world.

The city's green areas also include the Mata Nacional do Choupal, the Mata Nacional de Vale de Canas, Jardim da Sereia (also known as Jardim de Santa Cruz), Penedo da Saudade, Parque Manuel Braga, Parque Verde do Mondego and Choupalinho. Quinta das Lágrimas, a 19th century palace and estate, which was transformed into a hotel and golf resort, contains also a large park. Also noteworthy is the Paul de Arzila, a natural reserve occupying an area in Coimbra municipality (in Arzila), and in the neighbouring municipalities of Condeixa-a-Nova and Montemor-o-Velho.

Not far away from the urban center, close to the city itself, and fully set in the municipality of Coimbra, there are plenty of mountain and river landscapes. These include the river beach of Palheiros do Zorro in the parish of Torres do Mondego.

Sport[link]

The 30,210-seater Estádio Cidade de Coimbra (Coimbra City Stadium).

Coimbra is home to Associação Académica de Coimbra - O.A.F. (known simply as Académica), a professional football autonomous organism of the University of Coimbra students' union Associação Académica de Coimbra, founded in 1872 and having its current statute of autonomous football organization since the 1980s. Académica football team plays in the Portuguese Liga at the Estádio Cidade de Coimbra. Clube de Futebol União de Coimbra, another sports club with tradition in the city, owner of a football team which plays in the Portuguese Second Division, is other important club of Coimbra. Coimbra also has one of the largest multisports clubs in Portugal: the University of Coimbra's students' union Associação Académica de Coimbra, includes sections dedicated to a wide array of sports such as rugby, volleyball, handball, rink hockey, basketball, baseball, tennis, swimming, rowing, among many others.

The Estádio Cidade de Coimbra (30,000 seats), which was a site of 2004 European Football Championship and includes olympic swimming pools (Piscinas Municipais), as well as a multiuse sports facility (Pavilhão Multiusos de Coimbra), located both near the stadium; the Estádio Municipal Sérgio Conceição; and the Estádio Universitário de Coimbra, an extensive sports complex of the university on Mondego's left bank, are the main athletics and sports venues in Coimbra. The Pavilhão Jorge Anjinho sports arena (headquarters of Associação Académica de Coimbra - O.A.F.), Pavilhão dos Olivais, and Pavilhão do C.F. União de Coimbra, are other places where some of the most important indoor sports clashes involving teams of Coimbra are played.

Major sports teams based in Coimbra include:

Famous people[link]

Portugal's first king, Afonso Henriques, is buried in the Santa Cruz Monastery

The poet Luis Vaz de Camoes is linked with the city of Coimbra

Carlos Seixas one of Portugal's notable sons: born and raised in Coimbra

• Afonso Henriques, first king of Portugal. He is buried at the Santa Cruz Monastery in Coimbra.
• Sancho I, second king of Portugal, son of Afonso Henriques. He is buried at the Santa Cruz Monastery in Coimbra.
• Afonso II, third Portuguese king (1211), was born and died in Coimbra
• Sancho II, fourth king of Portugal, was born in Coimbra on September 8, 1209
• Afonso III, the youngest brother of Sancho II, fifth king of Portugal, was born in Coimbra on August 15, 1210
• Elizabeth of Portugal (Holy Queen Isabel), wife of King Denis I. She was buried at the Monastery of Santa Clara-a-Velha.
• Pedro I, king of Portugal.
• José de Anchieta, Spanish Jesuit, humanist and writer.
• Anthony of Lisbon, Catholic saint.
• Francisco Álvares, Portuguese missionary and explorer.
• Luís Vaz de Camões, Portuguese poet and author of the Lusiad.
• Francisco de Sá de Miranda, Portuguese poet of the Renaissance.
• Mem de Sá, Governor-General of Brazil.
• António Nobre, Portuguese poet.
• Mário Simões Dias, violinist and musicologist.
• Al Berto, Portuguese poet.
• Lúcia dos Santos, Carmelite nun and one of the three visionaries of Fátima.
• José de Anchieta, Spanish Jesuit and writer.
• Pedro Nunes, Famous mathematician in the 16th century.
• Christopher Clavius, German-born jesuit mathematician, one of the responsibles for the gregorian calendar.
• Carlos Seixas, prominent Portuguese composer of the 18th century.
• Joaquim Machado de Castro, Portuguese sculptor of the 18th century.
• João Maria Correia Ayres de Campos, 1st Count of Ameal, Portuguese art collector.
• Álvaro Cunhal, Portuguese politician, noted communist leader. He was born in Coimbra.
• Miguel Torga, Portuguese writer of prose and poetry, pseudonym of Adolfo Correia Rocha who was a medical doctor.
• Carlos Paredes, Portuguese musician.
• Zeca Afonso, Portuguese musician.
• Carlos Mota Pinto, Portuguese political figure, interim prime minister of Portugal between 1978 and 1979.
• Mário Crespo, Portuguese journalist and reporter. He was born in Coimbra.
• Zita Seabra, Portuguese politician, formerly a high profile member of the Portuguese Communist Party, who renounced and criticized communist ideology just before the fall of Berlin Wall.
• Pedro Passos Coelho, Portuguese Prime Minister, politician. He was born in Coimbra.
• Sérgio Conceição, Portuguese international footballer.
• Zé Castro, Portuguese international footballer.
• Nuno Piloto, Portuguese footballer, captain of the Academica Coimbra OAF football team.
• Luis de Matos, Portuguese magician.
• Paulo Furtado, the leading vocalist of the band Wraygunn.
• JP Simões, singer and musician.
• André Sardet, Portuguese singer and musician.
• Filipe Albuquerque, Portuguese race car driver.
• João Neto, Portuguese judo champion.
• Miguel Veloso, Portuguese international footballer
• Pedro Miranda, Merthyr Tydfil, legend.

See also[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Coimbra

• University of Coimbra
• Associação Académica de Coimbra
• Hospitais da Universidade de Coimbra
• Queima das Fitas
• Fado de Coimbra
• Joanina Library
• Associação Académica de Coimbra - O.A.F.
• Coimbra Group of universities
• Centro, Portugal

References[link]

Notes

External links[link]

Official websites

• Coimbra's Municipality City Hall
• Centro's Tourist Region

Other websites

• Coimbra City Guide from Wikitravel

Steve Aoki
Steve Aoki playing a set at the HiFi Nightclub in Calgary, Canada.
Background information
Birth name	Steve Hiroyuki Aoki parent = Richard Aoki
Born	(1977-11-30) November 30, 1977 (age 34) Miami, Florida
Origin	Newport Beach, California, United States
Genres	Electro house, Electronic
Labels	Dim Mak Records, Ministry of Sound Australia, Deckstar
Website	http://steveaoki.com/

Steve Hiroyuki Aoki (born November 30, 1977) is an American electro house musician, record producer and the founder of Dim Mak Records.^[1]

Biography[link]

Steve Hiroyuki Aoki was born in Miami and grew up in Newport Beach, California. He graduated from Newport Harbor High School in 1995; he was a star player on the varsity badminton team. He is the third child of Rocky Aoki and Chizuru Kobayashi.^[2] His father was a former Japanese Olympic wrestler who also founded the restaurant chain Benihana. He has two older siblings, sister Kana (who is sometimes called by her middle name "Grace"), and brother Kevin (owner of Doraku Sushi restaurant). He also has three half-siblings, all of whom are younger: half-brother Kyle and half-sisters Echo, and Devon, the supermodel and actress. As a child, Steve lived with his grandfather,^{[citation needed]} his mother, and his two older siblings.

Aoki attended the University of California, Santa Barbara and graduated with two B.A.s; one in Women's Studies and the other in Sociology. In college, he produced do-it-yourself records and ran underground concerts out of his Biko room in the Santa Barbara Student Housing Cooperative, which was located in Isla Vista, a section of residential land adjacent to UCSB. As a concert venue, the apartment became known as The Pickle Patch.^[3][4] By his early 20s, Aoki had built his own record label, which he named Dim Mak after his childhood hero, Bruce Lee.^[5] He has also been in numerous bands, including This Machine Kills, which released an album on Ebullition Records, Esperanza, and The Fire Next Time.

Musical career[link]

Aoki founded his own label, Dim Mak Records, in 1996. The label has released music by other electro house artists such as MSTRKRFT, The Bloody Beetroots, Felix Cartal and Mustard Pimp, as well as by Klaxons, Scanners, Whitey, and Mystery Jets. Aoki is also a club promoter and DJ. He has also teamed up with Blake Miller of the LA-based band Moving Units to produce remixes. The duo of Miller and Aoki work under the moniker Weird Science.

Aoki's debut mix album, Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles was released in January 2008.^[6] He also had an Essential Mix that aired on BBC Radio 1 on August 2, 2008.¹⁰

Aoki's latest solo album, "Wonderland" was released January 2012 and features guest vocalists and musicians LMFAO, Kid Cudi, Travis Barker, will.i.am aka Zuper Blahq, Wynter Gordon, Rivers Cuomo, Lil Jon, Chiddy Bang, Lovefoxxx of CSS, Big John Duncan former guitarist of the punk band The Exploited, and others.

Aoki has also been busy in the studio collaborating with other fellow producer friends and thus far has released singles with The Bloody Beetroots, Armand Van Helden of Duck Sauce, Afrojack, Laidback Luke, Tai, Sidney Samson, Tiesto. In his interviews, Twitter feed or from his YouTube channel, he has shown teasers or has discussed doing future collaborations with Diplo, Knife Party, Datsik, Chris Lake, Rune, Iggy Azalea, Angger Dimas, and Dirtyphonics.

He has remixed many artists and bands, including Jackson 5, Drake, Kanye West, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Mike Posner, Girls Generation, All American Rejects, Refused, The Killers, Bassnectar, Lenny Kravitz, Bloc Party, Snoop Dogg, Robin Thicke, S.P.A., Kid Cudi, Fërnando Oviedo,Chester French and Peaches.

He remixed the track "When The Wind Blows" that features on the UK edition of The All-American Rejects' 2008 album When The World Comes Down.

On November 10, 2009 he released a remix for Drake's song "Forever". The song features Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne, and Eminem. The track made it to the top of Hype Machine's chart in December 2009.^[7]

Through relentless touring he gained huge support from colleges. Performing an average of 250 shows a year, he has recently started touring with production via bus tours like the spring 2012 Deadmeat Tour he headlined over 55 cities in 60 dates across the United States and Canada.

In March 2010 Aoki released "I'm In The House", a collaboration with Zuper Blahq—alter-ego of The Black Eyed Peas singer will.i.am. The song charted at #29 in the UK Singles Chart in its first week of release.

Producer-songwriter Lucas Secon confirmed in a May 2010 interview with HitQuarters that he and Rivers Cuomo had recently worked with Aoki on a single.^[8]

In May 2006, Aoki became a board member for MC5 bassist Michael Davis' Music Is Revolution Foundation,^[9] a non-profit organization that provides music education support within public schools.^[10]

Business ventures[link]

The Dim Mak Collection^[11] clothing line was launched in 2006.^[12] A new fashion range designed by Steve and his sister Devon Aoki will be coming out in the future.

In 2007, Aoki and friend Greger, the owner of WeSC, came up with the idea together to do the "Aoki headphones." They used different shades of green, because that was Aoki's favorite color at the time.^[13] Each season for 3 years, Aoki designed new headphones for WeSC. He is currently working closely with Sol Republic and is a founding partner in the headphone company. Aoki also is endorsed by Supra Footwear, where he has helped develop and design shoes under his name.

Following somewhat in his father's footsteps, Aoki is a co-owner in two restaurants in Los Angeles and one in New York City. Eveleigh on Sunset Boulevard & Kitchen 24 on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood. The Little Ruby's on Orchard St in New York City opened in spring 2012.

He co-owns a management company called DECKSTAR.^[14] with DJ AM along with their manager Lawrence Vavra, Matt Colon and Paul Rosenberg. The roster boasts artists such as Blink 182, Holy Ghost!, Infected Mushroom, and Rancid.

He has co-founded and is now developing a website that attracts college students to sell, buy, share books, rent rooms, post events called PILLOWFACE.^[15] It's function is similar to Craiglist but that it targets and is exclusively for college students. When he went on his Dead Meat Tour across the United States and Canada in January through March 2012 he was promoting the website to all the colleges across the country.

In November 2009, Aoki created his own magazine titled "Aoki" through a celebrity magazine publishing company called MYMAG.^[16]

Guest appearances[link]

He was featured in the video games NBA 2K8 and NBA 2K9 as a special celebrity player, even though he admits to being terrible at basketball. He makes cameos in the videos for Cobra Starship's 2007 single "Send My Love to the Dancefloor, I'll See You in Hell (Hey Mister DJ)" and The Sounds' single "Tony The Beat".

On January 2012, Steve Aoki released new tracks on Turntable.fm in conjunction with SOL REPUBLIC Headphones^[17] making him the first established artist to fully orchestrate a listening session using the platform.^[18]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Mix albums[link]

Singles[link]

As featured artist[link]

Promotional singles[link]

Remixes[link]

• Michael Jackson – "Dancin' Machine" (Universal Motown)
• Autoerotique – "Gladiator" (Steve Aoki x DJ AM) (Dim Mak)
• NASA – "Gifted" (feat. Kanye West, Lykke Li, Santigold) (Anti)
• Chris Cornell – "Part of Me" (feat. Timbaland) (Interscope)
• Chester French – "She Loves Everybody" (Star Trak)
• The Killers – "Spaceman" (Steve Aoki & The Bloody Beetroots) (Polydor)
• Fact – "Rise" (Avex)
• All American Rejects – "The Wind Blows" (Interscope)
• Good Charlotte – "Misery" (Epic)
• S.P.A. – "Pets Dance" (Dim Mak)
• Lenny Kravitz – "Dancin' Til Dawn" (Virgin)
• Robin Thicke – "Magic" (Interscope)
• Duran Duran – "Skin Divers" (feat. Timbaland) (Interscope)
• Drake – "Forever" (feat. Kanye West, Lil Wayne & Eminem)^[7]
• Weezer – "(If You're Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To"
• Kid Cudi – "Pursuit of Happiness" (feat. MGMT & Ratatat)
• Klaxons – "Echoes"
• Bassnectar - "Red Step"
• Girls' Generation – "MR. TAXI"
• Mike Posner - "She Looks Like Sex"

Weird Science production[link]

Steve Aoki and Blake Miller's production group

• Haus of Cards – "Original" (Dim Mak)
• Snoop Dogg – "Sensual Seduction" (Geffen)
• Teddybears – "Cobrastyle" (Atlantic)
• Bloc Party – "Helicopter" (Dim Mak)
• The Rakes – "Work Work Work" (Dim Mak)
• Metro Station – "Control" (Columbia)
• Younglove – "Discotech" (Island)
• Peaches – "Boys Wanna Be Her" (XL)
• Under the Influence of Giants – "Mama's Room" (Island)
• The Fashion – "Like Knives & Solo Impala" (Columbia)

Featurings[link]

• The Bloody Beetroots – "Warp 1977" (feat. Steve Aoki & Bobberman) (Dim Mak)
• The Bloody Beetroots – "Warp 1.9" (feat. Steve Aoki) (Dim Mak)
• The Bloody Beetroots – "Warp 7.7" (feat. Steve Aoki) (Dim Mak)
• Junkie XL – "1967 Poem" (feat. Steve Aoki) (Nettwerk)
• Motor – "Kick It" (feat. Steve Aoki) (Dim Mak)
• Tai – "Paradise Poltergeist" (feat. Steve Aoki) (Dim Mak)
• Travis Barker – "Misfits" (feat. Steve Aoki) (Dim Mak)

Collaborations[link]

• Steve Aoki & Armand Van Helden – "Brrrat"
• Steve Aoki – "I'm In The House" (feat. Zuper Blahq)
• Steve Aoki & Laidback Luke & Lil Jon – "Turbulence"
• Steve Aoki & Afrojack – " No Beef"
• Steve Aoki & Sidney Samson – "Wake Up Call"
• Steve Aoki & Atari Teenage Riot – "Codebreaker"
• Steve Aoki & Tiësto – "Tornado"
• Steve Aoki & Travis Barker – "Misfits"
• Nervo, Afrojack & Steve Aoki – "We're All No One"
• Steve Aoki feat. LMFAO and Nervo - "Livin' My Love"
• Steve Aoki, Kid Cudi & Travis Barker - "Cudi The Kid"
• Steve Aoki & Knife Party - Currently Untitled Track

Awards[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2011)

• Best DJ of the Year – Paper Magazine (2007)
• Best Set of the Season – Ibiza Awards (2007)
• Best Party Rocker DJ – BPM Magazine (2007)
• Best Mix Album of the Year – Billboard (2008)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• The LA Times article
• Dim Mak Records website
• Steve Aoki on Myspace
• Weird Science on Myspace
• UCSB Student Interview with Steve Aoki
• The Santa Barbara Independent article
• Interview with Steve Aoki, Submerge Magazine, Dec. 2008
• Interview by Maximalminimal, April 2009
• Interview by Clubplanet, May 2010
• Steve Aoki on RCRD LBL

This article may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (January 2012)

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2012)

Amália Rodrigues
Streetart of Amália Rodrigues, Lisbon
Background information
Birth name	Amália da Piedade Rodrigues
Also known as	Queen of fado
Born	(1920-07-23)July 23, 1920
Origin	Lisbon, Portugal
Died	October 6, 1999(1999-10-06) (aged 79)
Genres	Fado
Occupations	Singer, Actress
Instruments	Vocals
Labels	Valentim de Carvalho
Website	http://www.amalia.com/

Amália da Piedade Rodrigues,^[1] GCSE, GCIH, (July 23, 1920 – October 6, 1999), known as Amália Rodrigues (Portuguese pronunciation: [ɐˈmaliɐ ʁuˈðɾiɣɨʃ]), was a Portuguese singer and actress. She was known as the Rainha do Fado ("Queen of Fado") and was most influential in popularizing the fado worldwide. She was one of the most important figures in the genre's development, and enjoyed a 50-year recording and stage career. Amália' performances and choice of repertoire pushed fado's boundaries and helped redefine it and reconfigure it for her and subsequent generations. In effect, Amália wrote the rulebook on what fado could be and on how a female fadista — or fado singer — should perform it, to the extent that she remains an unsurpassable model and an unending source of repertoire for all those who came afterwards. Amália enjoyed an extensive international career between the 1950s and the 1970s, although in an era where such efforts were not as easily quantified as today. She was the main inspiration to other well-known international fado and popular music artists such as Madredeus, Dulce Pontes and Mariza.

The early years[link]

Amália Rodrigues remains today as Portugal's most famous artist and singer, a woman who was born into an almost destitute family and who grew to become not only Portugal's major star but also an internationally acclaimed artist and singer, whose career spanned 55 years of activity, recording songs in several languages (specially Portuguese, Spanish, French, English and Italian), versions of her own songs, most famously 'Coimbra' (April In Portugal), and performing all over the world, achieving tremendous success in countries like France, Italy, Spain, the USA, Mexico, Brazil, Romania, Japan and The Netherlands, among many others.

Her personality and charisma, the beauty of her face and her extraordinary timbre of voice, gave depth and intense life to her chant: the impression she made on the public, her immediacy and the natural way she empathized with her public were tremendous and attracted more and more admirers throughout the world.

As of her death in 1999 Amália had received more than 40 decorations and honors from all over the world (mostly France, including the Légion d'Honneur, Lebanon, Portugal, Spain, Israel and Japan).

Most importantly Amália put fado as a musical genre on the map of world music, in dictionaries, libraries and musical essays. She paved the way for the generations that would follow, and that continue her legacy.

Despite official documents which give her date of birth as July 23, Amália always said her birthday was July 1, 1920.^[2] She was born in Lisbon, in the rua Martim Vaz (Martim Vaz Street), neighborhood of Pena. Her father was a trumpet player and cobbler from Fundão who returned there when Amália was just over a year old, leaving her to live in Lisbon with her maternal grandmother in a deeply Catholic environment until she was 14, when her parents returned to the capital and she moved back in with them.

She sang from the early age of 4 or 5, in the streets of Lisbon, playfully and naturally, and started singing as an amateur as early as 1935.

Her miserable childhood in Lisbon, almost destitute and having to do odd jobs (one of which included selling fruit in Lisbon's quays), gave her a very important outlook on life, which would always be present in soulfulness of her chant.

After a few years of amateur performances, Amália's first professional engagement in a fado venue took place in 1939, and she quickly became a regular guest star in stage revues.^[3] There she met Frederico Valério, a classically trained composer who, recognizing the potential in such a voice, wrote expansive melodies custom-designed for Amália’s voice, breaking the rules of fado by adding orchestral accompaniment. Among those fados were 'Fado do Ciúme', 'Ai Mouraria', 'Que Deus Me Perdoe', and 'Não Sei Porque Te Foste Embora.'

In the meantime Amália became Portugal's most renowned singer, and she became first the toast of Lisbon and then the toast of Portugal, attracting friends and admirers both from the people, then from the aristocracy. Artists, poets, politicians, former Kings and bankers were attracted by her personality and charisma.

At the same time Amália began an interesting career in the movies: her box office power was a major asset, and she debuted in the movies in 1946 with 'Capas Negras', followed by a major success, which is still Amália's most known movie, 'Fado' (1946).

Her Portuguese popularity began to extend abroad with trips to Spain, a lengthy stay in Brazil (where, in 1945, she made her first recordings on Brazilian label Continental) and Paris (1949). In 1950, while performing at the Marshall Plan international benefit shows, she introduced 'April in Portugal' to international audiences, under its original title "Coimbra".

In the early fifties, the patronage of acclaimed Portuguese poet David Mourão-Ferreira marked the beginning of a new phase: Amália sang with many of the country's greatest poets, and some wrote lyrics specifically for her. Though Amália came from an extremely poor family, she had an intuitive intelligence which made her admire the arts and made her choose with increasing criteria and taste her own songs and their words. Her relationship with poetry would once again contribute to major changes in traditional fado: not only popular poets produced words for the songs, but the so-called great poets started contributing and writing specifically for her. The 'grand poetry' crossed its paths with those of fado.

The middle years[link]

Amália had indeed taken a few steps outside of Portugal, the above mentioned appearances in Spain (1943), Brasil, (1945) with her first recordings, and Berlin (1950). Her success wherever she went paved the way for further appearances abroad: she was the first Portuguese artist to ever appear on American television on ABC in 1953, and later to appear in Hollywood singing at the Mocambo, among others, in 1954. She also appeared on Mexican television. Wherever she went, a new group of admirers followed her.

She refused a proposal to appear in the movies in 1954, partly because of her shy nature and partly because allegedly she missed home.

But Amália would become a truly international name in 1954.

In 1954, Amália's international career skyrocketed through her presence in Henri Verneuil’s film The Lovers of Lisbon (Les Amants du Tage), where she had a supporting role. By the late 1950s the USA, Britain, and France had become her major international markets; Japan and Italy followed suit in the 1970s. In France especially, her popularity rivaled her Portuguese success, and she graduated to headliner at the prestigious Olympia theatre within a matter of months. This led to the release of the album Portugal's Great Amália Rodrigues Live at the Olympia Theatre in Paris, in 1957, on Monitor Records (now under Smithsonian Folkways). Over the years, she performed nearly all over the world — going as far as the Soviet Union and Israel.

In France she performed on television and became a well-known figure and artist and a much admired singer. Charles Aznavour even wrote a fado in French especially for her 'Aie Mourir Pour Toi' and she created versions of her own songs (Coimbra became Avril au Portugal, among others). She would perform at the prestigious Olympia for 10 seasons between 1956 and 1992, a feat almost unequaled by any other artist. From France she became a truly international star. Her voice, however, demanded more of the music and the words she sang.

At the end of the 1950s, Amália took a year off. Amália had been briefly married (1940–43) to a guitarist, whom she would later divorce, and fell in love with the son of a Portuguese immigrant in Brazil, an engineer, César Seabra (1922–1997) and they married in 1961. She then said she would sing only once in a while, but after a year's absence, she was no longer able to resist the appeal of the music she loved. She returned in 1962 with a richer voice, concentrating on recording and performing live at a slower pace. Her comeback album, 1962's Amália Rodrigues, was her first collaboration with French composer Alain Oulman, her main songwriter and musical producer throughout the decade. As Frederico Valério, before him, Oulman wrote melodies for her that transcended the conventions of fado.

In fact Alain Oulman (1929–1990), created in that album, also known as 'Busto' (Bust), a different kind of fado, with more extensions and which introduced aspects attributed traditionally to opera: the legatos, the extension of the voice, which adapted and fitted perfectly Amália's voice. She sang with renewed power, and became a true enchantress of the song. Also in that record she sang her own poems ('Estranha Forma de Vida') and poems written by great Portuguese poets, like Pedro Homem de Mello, David Mourão-Ferreira and others. She created longlife successes, which became classics and immortal songs in Portugal, like 'Povo Que Lavas no Rio', 'Maria Lisboa' and 'Abandono'.

She resumed her stage career singing all over the world, including Israel, the UK, France, and returning to the USA for Promenade Concerts in Hollywood at the Hollywood Bowl, and New York City, accompanied by Andre Kostelanetz, both in 1966 and 1968, achieving an extraordinary success. She also sang in Soviet Union and Romania, among other countries.

She continued her acting career, in films like 'Sangue Toureiro' (1958), and 'Fado Corrido' (1964).

Amália did not shy away from controversy: her performance in Carlos Vilardebó’s 1964 arthouse film The Enchanted Islands was better received than the film, based on a short story by Herman Melville, and her 1965 recording of poems by 16th century poet Luís de Camões generated acres of newspaper polemics. Yet her popularity remained untouched. Her 1968 single Vou dar de beber à dor broke all sales records and her 1970 album Com que voz won a number of international awards.

Having been given Portugal's Film Award for Best Actress for 'Fado' in 1947, once again she was awarded as Portugal's Best Film Actress in 1965, in a movie where she didn't sing.

In between she extended her talents to other kinds of songs: she recorded some of her old songs with an orchestra, recorded an extraordinary album with jazz saxophonist Don Byas 'Encontro' (1968), and recorded an album of American songs with Norrie Paramor's orchestra, 'Amália On Broadway' which includes a sensitive and powerful rendition of 'Summertime', 'The Nearness of You' among others.

Meanwhile, Alain Oulman, who was by heart a left-wing intellectual, was arrested by Portugal's political police in 1966, and forced into exile, but he continued to contribute with his music to Amália's voice, leaving behind many compositions which would enable her to record his music.

But her most important album in the 60s was indeed 'Com Que Voz', (1969), reprising many of her successes and adding a few more, all poems by great Portuguese-speaking poets, and music by Alain Oulman. Amália was at the height of her vocal and performing powers during the 60s. But the 70s would bring more countries, more success and an array of awards all over the world.

The later years[link]

During the 1970s, Amália concentrated on live work, and embarked upon a heavy schedule of worldwide concert performances. During the frenetic post-April 25, 1974 period she was falsely accused of being a covert agent of the PIDE, causing some trauma to her public life and career. In fact, during the Salazar years, Amália had been an occasional financial supporter of some communists in need. At the same time she had occasionally expressed some admiration for Salazar himself. But as a singer she always remained above politics, before or after the Revolution. The democratic regime would in fact decorate her far more than the dictatorship. During the 70s Amália had a tremendous success and following in two countries: Italy and Japan. Wherever she went there she was the toast of town. She would record an album of Italian traditional songs 'A Una Terra Che Amo' (1973) and again created versions of her own songs in Italian. And would record her live performances in an album called 'Amália In Italia' (1978). Her return to the recording studio in 1977 with Cantigas numa Língua Antiga was received as a triumph. Soon after, however, Amália suffered her first health troubles which caused her to be away from the stage for a short period again, and forced her to concentrate on performing especially in Portugal, though she still traveled abroad. Those problems were followed by a period of depression, and an introspection which led to the recording of two very personal albums: 'Gostava de Ser Quem Era' (1980) (literally 'I Wish I Were whom I Was')and 'Lágrima' (1983): all these songs were written by her own hand, since she used the poems she herself wrote. They were both successes, and in between she sang Frederico Valerio's songs again, in an album called 'Fado' (1982). The 1980s and 1990s brought her enthronement as a living legend. Her last all-new studio recording, Lágrima, was released in 1983. It was followed by a series of previously lost or unreleased recordings, and the smash success of two greatest hits collections that sold over 200,000 copies combined.

In fact, increasingly away from the stage on a regular basis, Amália found herself ill again in 1984, and went to New York in order to attempt suicide, but she couldn't go through with it and instead sought and got medical care. Upon her return home, and after a year of interruption, she was invited by a French journalist and admirer, Jean-Jacques Lafaye, back on stage. She then returned to the Olympia in Paris in 1985, for a series of concerts, and again from Paris she retook the world. The years 1985-1994 were of great and renewed international success, especially up until 1991. She again sang all over the world, being paid tributes and being celebrated as one of the world's major voices and singers: she sang all over France, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Israel, and major concerts in Portugal in 1985 and 1987, and so many others, being decorated and paid regular tributes.

In her home country she was an icon and a symbol of Portugal. In 1990 the celebrations of her 50th career anniversary started with a major concert in Lisbon's Coliseu dos Recreios, appearing at the age of 69, to an overwhelmed public. She was decorated by the President of the Republic on stage, and started a series of concerts all over the world, including a comeback to New York in late 1990, as described below. Her voice had changed: it was lower but intense, and her on stage presence overwhelmed everybody, her beauty and charisma untouched.

Despite a series of illnesses involving her voice, Amália continued recording as late as 1990. She eventually retreated from public performance, although her career gained in stature with an official biography by historian and journalist Vítor Pavão dos Santos, and a five-hour TV series documenting her fifty-year career featuring rare archival footage (later distilled into the 90-minute film documentary, The Art of Amália). Its director, Bruno de Almeida, has also produced Amália, Live in New York City, a concert film of her 1990 performance at The Town Hall.

Amália Rodrigues in 1998

Amália launched a final album of originals in 1990, 'Obssessão', and from 1991 to 1994 it was felt that she was saying good-bye to her public, who still attended her performances. However, new health problems and difficulties took their toll: in December 1994 she gave her last concert, within the Lisbon European Capital of Culture concerts: she was 74, and was operated on a lung soon after in 1995. She would never again return to the stage. She was however much celebrated in the country and abroad. Television specials, interviews and tributes were held. She released a new album with original recordings from the 60s and 70s, 'Medo' (1997), and a book of her poems, including the ones she had sung: 'Amália: Versos' (1997).

In 1998 Amália was paid a national tribute at Lisbon's Universal Exhibition (Expo '98), and in February 1999 was considered one of Portugal's 25 more important personalities of the democratic period. Soon after she recorded what would become her last interview for television and the Cinématheque in Paris paid her a tribute in April 1999, with a showing of some of her movies.

On October 6, 1999, Amália Rodrigues died at the age of 79 in her home in Lisbon. Portugal's government promptly declared three days of national mourning.^[4][5] Her house, in Rua de São Bento, is now a museum. She is buried at the National Pantheon alongside other Portuguese notables.

In fact she was given a State Funeral, attended by thousands, and was later transferred to the Pantheon in 2001, the only woman to be so, after the Parliament decided to honor her with that dignity.

Upon her death and by will, she created the Foundation Amália Rodrigues, which manages her legacy and assets, except her copyright, willed to two of her nephews. Amália's estate was never exactly valued, but she left two houses, (one mansion in Lisbon), antiques, works of art, a collection of jewels and other important items, decorations, and an amount of money.

In 2007, she came in 14th in Portugal's election of Os Grandes Portugueses (The Greatest Portuguese).^[6] One year later, in 2008, a film about her life Amália was released, with Sandra Barata portraying her.^[7]

Amália, who was once considered by Variety one of the voices of the century, remains to this day as the most international of Portuguese artists and singers, and in Portugal, a national icon.

Her cultural relevance is shown by the fact that she put fado on the world map as a form of chant and music, and her steps were followed by an array of performers and singers, whom, in their own right, achieved success and worldwide fame, following in her path and many of whom sing her repertoire, under its classic form or under a new look. Amália's repertoire continues to be a major one, allowing for new performer's renewed success and international breakthrough.

Family[link]

Amália's parents had nine children: Vicente and Filipe, José and António (who both died in childhood), Amália, Celeste, Aninhas (who died at sixteen), Maria da Glória (who died shortly after birth), and Maria Odete. In 1940, she married Francisco Cruz, a lathe worker and amateur guitar player from whom she separated in 1943 and whom she divorced in 1946. In 1961, in Rio de Janeiro, she married César Seabra, a Brazilian engineer; they remained married until his death in 1997. She had no children.^[2]

Discography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Amália Rodrigues

• (Portuguese) Amália: uma estranha forma de vida
• Amália Rodrigues at the Internet Movie Database

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2009)

José Manuel Cerqueira Afonso dos Santos, known as Zeca Afonso (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈzɛkɐ aˈfõsu]) or just Zeca (2 August 1929 – 23 February 1987), was born in Aveiro, Portugal, the son of José Nepomuceno Afonso, a judge, and Maria das Dores. Zeca is among the most influential folk and political musicians in Portuguese history. He became an icon among Portuguese left-wing activists due to the role of his music in the resistance against the dictatorial regime of Oliveira Salazar, resistance that triumphed in 1974 with the pro-democratic leftist military coup of the Carnation Revolution. In the ensuing revolutionary process, Zeca was a very active musician and continued composing political and folk songs, often criticizing the post-revolutionary changes. Years after his death, Zeca Afonso is still widely listened to, not only in Portugal, but also abroad.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

José Afonso was born in Aveiro on 2 August 1929, at 10:30 am.

In 1930 his parents travelled to Angola, a Portuguese colony at the time, where his father had been placed as a judge in the city of Silva Porto (present-day Kuito). José Afonso stayed at Aveiro, in a house named "Fonte das Cinco Bicas", due to some health problems with his aunt Gigé and his uncle Xico, who called himself "republican and anticlerical". In 1933 Zeca travelled to Angola at his mother's request. On the ship Zeca met a missionary who became his companion during the voyage. José Afonso stayed for three years in Angola, where he began his primary education.

In 1936 he returned to Aveiro and in 1937 he travelled for the second time, this time to Mozambique, another Portuguese overseas territory in East Africa, where his parents were then living, with his brother and sister, João and Mariazinha.

He returned to Portugal in 1938, this time to the house of his uncle Filomeno, mayor of the town of Belmonte. There he finished the fourth grade. His uncle, a fierce fascist supporter, made him a member of the "Mocidade Portuguesa", a youth organization under the right-wing regime of the Estado Novo; Zeca came to consider those years among the worst of his life.

He went to Coimbra in 1940 in order to continue his studies. He studied in the D. João III high school and lived with his aunt Avrilete. His family went from Mozambique to East Timor, also a Portuguese overseas territory at that time, where his father continued his job as a judge. Mariazinha went with them while his brother João returned to Portugal. With the occupation of Timor by the Japanese, José Afonso received no news from his parents for three years, until the end of World War II in 1945.

Azulejo in homage at the house in Coimbra, where José Afonso, O Zeca, lived. Known as the troubadour of liberty.

University years[link]

In that year he started singing his first songs as a bicho (which means something like a bug or a worm), a traditional rank of the University of Coimbra for high school students (José Afonso was in the 11th grade). He was known as bicho-cantor ("the singing bug"), which granted him the right of not being rapado ("head shaved") by the organized trupes ("groups") of older students who were guardians of the university's traditions.

From 1946 to 1948 he worked to finish high school, after two prior attempts failed due to his chaotic lifestyle spent among the older students. He met Maria Amália de Oliveira, whom he married, secretly due to his parents' opposition. He travelled with some of the most important university musical groups, as Orfeon Académico de Coimbra, and played football for the Associação Académica de Coimbra. In 1949 he started studying History and Philosophy at the University of Coimbra.

In January 1953 his first son, José Manuel, was born. That year, he released his first recordings, of which no copies remain today.

From 1953 to 1955 he underwent compulsory military service. He was sent to Macau, by then a Portuguese territory, but he was sent home due to health problems. After that he was stationed at Coimbra. He experienced many economic difficulties and divorced. After his military service, and now with two children, José Manuel and Helena (born in 1954), Zeca finished his studies with an 11 (out of 20) for a thesis about Jean-Paul Sartre.

Early political action[link]

In 1956 he released his first record, Fados de Coimbra. In 1956/57 he became a teacher and worked in the south of Portugal. Due to his financial problems he sent his children to the Portuguese overseas territory of Mozambique in 1958, where his parents were at the time. In that year he became enthralled by Humberto Delgado's presidential campaign; Delgado lost due to massive fraud perpetrated by the authoritarian Estado Novo regime. In 1959 he started singing in his trademark musical style, colored with political and social connotations, in many popular groups around the country. This granted him a growing popularity among the working class and the rural population. In 1960 his fourth record, Balada do Outono (Autumn Ballad), was released. From 1961 to 1962 he paid close attention to the student strikes and demonstrations demanding democracy and the end of the authoritarian Estado Novo regime, which were brutally repressed by the police. He continued releasing many of his songs and introduced important new guitar arrangements. He played in Switzerland, Germany, and Sweden, in a fado guitar group with Adriano Correia de Oliveira, José Niza, Jorge Godinho, Durval Moreirinhas and the singer Esmeralda Amoedo. In May 1964, José Afonso played in the Musical Society Workers' Brotherhood in Grândola, where he found the inspiration to compose the song Grândola, Vila Morena, which would be the signal (broadcast by the national radio channel) for the start of the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Also in 1964 the album Baladas e Canções was released. From 1964 to 1967, José Afonso was in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) and Beira, Mozambique, with Zélia (his second wife); there he reunited with his children. In his last two years in the overseas province he taught in Beira, and composed music for the Bertolt Brecht play The Exception and The Rule. In 1965 his daughter Joana was born. In 1967 he returned to Lisbon, marked by the colonial reality and by the Portuguese Colonial War against the independence-seeking guerrilla movement of Mozambique, Frelimo. However, he left his older son, José Manuel, with the latter's grandparents in Mozambique. José Afonso became a teacher in Setúbal; after that he developed a severe health crisis which left him hospitalized for 20 days. When he left the hospital, he found that he had been expelled from public school teaching because of his leftist politics and because the regime's censors considered his songs strongly subversive. His book Cantares de José Afonso (José Afonso's songs) was published. The Portuguese Communist Party invited him personally to become a party member but Zeca refused because of his bourgeois origins. In that year he signed a contract with the Orfeu label, which would record 70% of his works. Expelled from the teaching job, he became a private tutor for some students and he started singing much more regularly in the popular groups on the south bank of the Tagus river, Margem Sul do Tejo, a fiercely Communist-supporting region that even before the revolution had strong local movements and associations. For Christmas, Zeca released the album Cantares do Andarilho, with Rui Pato, the first album recorded for Orfeu. His contract was very special: he received 15,000 escudos per month on condition that he recorded an album per year.

Anti-regime activities[link]

In 1969, with the replacement of António de Oliveira Salazar by Marcelo Caetano, the Estado Novo-controlled nation got a very slight taste of democracy, such as permission to rebuild a democratic Labour Union movement. José Afonso joined the movement and supported it by all the means he could; he also took part in the second wave of student rebellion against the regime in Coimbra, an important university town. He released the album Contos Velhos Rumos Novos and the single Menina dos Olhos Tristes which contains the popular song Canta Camarada (Sing, Sing, Comrade!) which was almost adopted by the Portuguese Communist Party as an unofficial anthem. He received the award for best album that year, and again in 1970 and 1971. For the first time on a Zeca album, an instrument other than the guitar was used. His fourth and last son, Pedro, was born.

In 1970 the album Traz Outro Amigo Também (Bring Another Friend Too), recorded in London, in the Pye studios, was released. It is the first album without Rui Pato, forbbiden to travel by PIDE, the fascist political police. On 21 March the Portuguese press gave him an award for his "high quality work as singer and composer and for his decisive influence upon Portuguese popular music". He participated in an international festival in Cuba. At the end of 1971, the famous album Cantigas do Maio (Songs of May), recorded near Paris, in Château d'Hérouville studios, was released. The album is generally considered the best album of his career. His 1972 album is called Eu Vou Ser Como a Toupeira (I Will Be Like the Mole), and was recorded in Madrid, at Cellada studios.

In 1973 José Afonso continued his "pilgrimage", singing all over Portugal. Many of his appearances were forcibly cancelled by the PIDE/DGS. In April he was arrested and spent 20 days in Caxias prison (a prison mostly used for political prisoners) until the end of May. In the prison he wrote the poem Era Um Redondo Vocábulo. For Christmas, he released the album Venham Mais Cinco, recorded in Paris and on which José Mário Branco collaborated. Janine de Waleyne, from the Swingle Singers, guested on the title track. On 29 March 1974, there was a full house at the Coliseu, in Lisbon, for José Afonso, Adriano Correia de Oliveira, José Jorge Letria, Manuel Freire, José Barata Moura, Fernando Tordo, and many others, who ended the concert by singing "Grândola, Vila Morena". Some soldiers from the revolutionary movement that in April would take part in the Carnation Revolution, the MFA, were in the audience and chose "Grândola" as a symbol for the Revolution. A month later, on 25 April, the Estado Novo regime was overthrown in a nearly bloodless military coup. He released the album Coro dos Tribunais (Courthouse Chorus), recorded in London, again at Pye, with musical arrangements by Fausto. The album includes two Brechtian songs, composed in Mozambique in the period between 1964 and 1967: "Coro dos Tribunais" and "Eu Marchava de Dia e de Noite".

Revolutionary period[link]

Monument in homage to Zeca in Grândola

From 1974 to 1975 he became directly involved in the popular revolutionary movements. The PREC (Ongoing Revolutionary Process) became his passion. He performed on 11 March 1975 (the day of a failed fascist coup) in the RALIS (a leftist military stronghold) for the soldiers. Zeca established a collaboration with the extreme-left movement LUAR. LUAR released his single "Viva o Poder Popular" (Hail to the People's Power) with "Foi na Cidade do Sado" on the B-side. In Italy, the revolutionary organizations Lotta Continua, Il Manifesto and Avanguardia Operaria released the album República, recorded in Rome on 30 September and 1 October. The money received from the sales of the album went to support the striking workers of the newspaper República. The album is almost unknown in Portugal and includes the songs "Para Não Dizer Que Não Falei de Flores", "Se os Teus Olhos se Vendessem", "Foi no Sábado Passado", "Canta Camarada", "Eu Hei-de Ir Colher Macela", "O Pão Que Sobra à Riqueza", "Os Vampiros", "Senhora do Almortão", "Letra para Um Hino" and "Ladainha do Arcebispo".

In 1976 he supported Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho's presidential candidacy. Otelo was an important commander of the 25 April military operations, and Zeca supported him again in 1980. He released the album Com as Minhas Tamanquinhas.

The album Enquanto Há Força, released in 1978, again with Fausto, shows some of Zeca's concerns about colonialism and imperialism and is also a critique of the Catholic Church.

In 1979 the album Fura Fura was released with the help of the popular artist Júlio Pereira. It contains many songs that were meant for the theatre. He participated in the Anti-Eurovision Festival in Brussels.

Zeca's last years[link]

In 1981, after two years of silence, he returned to Coimbra with his album Fados de Coimbra e Outras Canções. He played in Paris at the Théâtre de la Ville.

In 1982 he started to develop the first symptoms of the severe disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (motor neurone disease, or Lou Gehrig's disease in the US). He played in Bruges at the Printemps Festival.

On 23 January 1983, Zeca, weakened by the disease, played with some difficulty in a huge show with a full house at the Coliseu with Octávio Sérgio, António Sérgio, Lopes de Almeida, Durval Moreirinhas, Rui Pato, Fausto, Júlio Pereira, Guilherme Inês, Rui Castro, Rui Júnior, Sérgio Mestre, and Janita Salomé. At that show the live album Ao Vivo no Coliseu was recorded.

At the end of 1983 he released Como Se Fora Seu Filho, a political testemonial. It contained the following songs: "Papuça", "Utopia", "A Nau de António Faria", "Canção da Paciência", "O País Vai de Carrinho", "Canarinho", "Eu Dizia", "Canção do Medo", "Verdade e Mentira" and "Altos Altentes". The city of Coimbra awarded him its Golden Medal. "Thanks Zeca, this is your house", the mayor, Mendes Silva, told him. "I don't want to become an institution, but I feel very grateful for the homage", Zeca answered. After that the president, Ramalho Eanes, wanted to give him the Order of Liberty, but Zeca refused to fill the papers.

In 1983 José Afonso was reinstated in his official teaching position, whence he had been expelled in 1968; he was sent to Azeitão. His sickness started spreading and his health got worse.

In 1985 his last album, Galinhas do Mato, was released. Zeca was unable to sing all the songs on the album, being replaced by Luís Represas ("Agora"), Helena Vieira ("Tu Gitana"), Janita Salomé ("Moda do Entrudo", "Tarkovsky" and "Alegria da Criação"), José Mário Branco ("Década de Salomé", duet with Zeca), Né Ladeiras ("Benditos") and Marta Salomé ("Galinhas do Mato"). Musical arrangements are by Júlio Pereira and Fausto. The album also included "Escandinávia Bar-Fuzeta" and "À Proa".

In 1986 he supported the presidential candidacy of Maria de Lourdes Pintasilgo, a progressive Catholic woman; she was not elected.

José Afonso died in Setúbal on 23 February 1987, at 3 am, a victim of the sclerosis that had been diagnosed in 1982. His funeral in Setúbal was attended by 30,000 people. The procession took two hours to cover 1300 meters. His coffin was covered with a red flag with no symbols, as he had wished, and it was borne by, among others, Sérgio Godinho, Júlio Pereira, José Mário Branco, Luís Cília and Francisco Fanhais.

Legacy[link]

On 18 November 1987, the Associação José Afonso was created with the objective of fulfilling Zeca's intentions in the areas of Portuguese music and art.

In 1991, the city of Amadora inaugurated a 12-foot statue of Zeca Afonso in the city's Central Park.

On 30 June 1994, as part of Lisboa-94, European Capital of Culture, a festival in homage to Zeca took place. Many Portuguese musicians, both veterans and younger artists, joined in the tribute festival, called "Filhos da Madrugada" ("Children of Dawn", the title of one of Zeca's most famous songs). Earlier that year, BMG had released an album with the same title as the festival, and with the same artists performing their own versions of Zeca's songs.

Performers at this event included Brigada Victor Jara, Censurados, Delfins, Diva, Entre Aspas, Essa Entente, Frei Fado D'El Rei, GNR, Madredeus, Mão Morta, Opus Ensemble, Peste & Sida, Resistência, Ritual Tejo, Sérgio Godinho, Sétima Legião, Sitiados, Tubarões, UHF, Vozes da Rádio, and Xutos & Pontapés.

Thirteen years earlier, Zeca had remarked that "If rock is the musical style that the young prefer, then we should ask for good quality rock music".

In 1995 José Mário Branco, Amélia Muge, and João Afonso, Zeca's nephew, released another album in homage to Zeca, called Maio, Maduro Maio, that included many of his songs and two previously unreleased ones, "Entre Sodoma e Gomorra" and "Nem Sempre os Dias São Dias Passados".

For the 10th anniversary of Zeca's death, in 1997, EMI released for the first time in CD format the 1964 album Baladas e Canções.

In 1998, Vitorino and Janita Salomé took part in a concert in homage to José Afonso, included in Expo'98's programme.

In 2007 he was elected the 29th Greatest Portuguese.

Discography[link]

• 1960 – Balada do Outono, Rapsódia
• 1962 – Baladas de Coimbra, Rapsódia
• 1963 – Dr. José Afonso em Baladas de Coimbra, Rapsódia
• 1964 – Ó Vila de Olhão, EMI/Valentim de Carvalho
• 1964 – Cantares de José Afonso, Columbia/Valentim de Carvalho
• 1964 – Baladas e Canções, Ofir
• 1967 – José Afonso, ?
• 1968 – Cantares do Andarilho, Orfeu
• 1969 – Menina dos Olhos Tristes, Orfeu
• 1969 – Contos Velhos Rumos Novos, Orfeu
• 1970 – Traz Outro Amigo Também, Orfeu
• 1971 – Cantigas do Maio, Orfeu
• 1972 – Eu Vou Ser Como a Toupeira, Orfeu
• 1973 – Venham Mais Cinco, Orfeu
• 1974 – Coro dos Tribunais, Orfeu
• 1974 – Viva o Poder Popular, LUAR
• 1974 – Grândola, Vila Morena, Orfeu
• 1975 – República, Lotta Continua/Il Manifesto/Vanguardia Operaria
• 1976 – Com as Minhas Tamanquinhas, Orfeu
• 1976 – José Afonso in Hamburg, Portugal Solidaritat
• 1978 – Enquanto Há Força, Orfeu
• 1979 – Fura Fura, Orfeu
• 1981 – Fados de Coimbra e Outras Canções, Orfeu
• 1983 – Como se Fora seu Filho, Sassetti
• 1983 – Ao Vivo no Coliseu, Sassetti
• 1983 – Zeca em Coimbra, Foto Sonoro
• 1985 – Galinhas do Mato, Transmédia

Posthumous releases[link]

• 1987 – Os Vampiros, Edisco
• 1993 – Zeca Afonso no Coliseu, Strauss
• 1996 - De Capa e Batina, Movieplay
• 1997 – Baladas e Canções, EMI (2nd edition)
• 2001 – José Afonso, Movieplay
• 2007 – As Últimas Gravações, CNM

External links[link]

• Associação José Afonso (José Afonso Association)
• As Canções de José Afonso (José Afonso's Songs)
• Letras de José Afonso (José Afonso's lyrics)
• Last.FM entry about José Afonso