My fado experience

Am I still going on about Lisbon? Yes, of course... Although the snow is finally melting here, Lisbon stays with me. *sighs*

Now, I mentioned briefly that Børge and I went to a fado house. Restaurant Bacalhau de molho, to be precise. The entrance was quite inconspicuos, we were about to walk past it, when a smartly dressed headwaiter popped his head out and invited us in, as we'd already booked tables.

In addition to the aforementioned, stunning waiter, and the food - which I'll probably bore you with later - there was music. That's the point of a fado house, really. So every half hour a fado singer would appear, the lights went down, and the music poured over us.

I'd never heard fado before, I didn't know what to expect. I knew it was the Portuguese blues or rebetiko, and that Lisbon has its very own fado - but I had no idea it was so compelling, so moving, so instantly goosebump-producing!

The first three performers were women, all wearing the typical black shawl. Then the guitarra player moved up and did his fado solos, while a new guitarra player appeared.

Then, the last singer. The main performance. The Portuguese who were there - about half of the guests - were beyond themselves, whistling and applauding like never before! As soon as she started singing, we knew why. I had loved the earlier performances, but this singer was totally beyond belief! She did her 3 songs, as had the others, then came back for an encore, smiling as the crowd joined in on Lisboa é Sempre Lisboa. Her name was Ana Moura, she is one of their most famous fado singers. I did a poor recording on my mobile, so you'd better listen to the cd version of her Porque Teimas Nesta Dor!

Did I mention Daniel filled my iPod, bless him :) - and that the playlist "fado" (extended with the cd I bought) is now most frequently played?

As before, the audio might not work on a Mac, or with certain browsers. If so, I'm sorry, I'll try to find a way around this, but not tonight. I mean this morning...