The word fado means destiny or fate.

The fado is a Portugal’s typical music genre. It is characterized by its mournful tunes and lyrics, originally about the sea, tragic stories of love and jealousy, and saudade, which is a Portuguese word that has no translation to any other language, but it can be described as feeling nostalgia while missing someone. 

Fado was probably born in the quarter of Mouraria in Lisbon, with origin in Moorish songs. There are many songs that refer to this part of Lisbon, and the songs are so melancholic as the ancient the Morrish songs.

The first famous fado singer is Maria Severa Onofriana who lived in the beginning of the 19th Century.  In the 1920s and 1930s, Fado de Coimbra became very popular. The pioneers of this genre of fado, and masters of the Portugueses guitar were Carlos Paredes and his father Artur Paredes. One of the great ambassadors of Fado de Coimbra is the Orfeon Académico de Coimbra, which is internationally recognized by its chorus.

Amália Rodrigues was the greatest fado diva ever. She died in 1999. After she died, a new generation of artists introduced some changes in traditional fado’s style and export this music to the rest of the world. Mariza, Ana Moura, Camané, Misia and Mafalda Arnauth brought a new look to fado, but kept the essence of the tradicional Fado in their songs.

There are some musicians that added new instruments and themes to the original Fado, like Madredeus and Cristina Branco.

Nowadays, Mariza seems to be the ultimate fado diva of the new generation.