Paris (AFP)

Portuguese music will show two faces on Monday at La Cigale in Paris, with singer Antonio Zambujo, very influenced by Brazilian pop and music, and singer Misia who renews fado by remaining fiercely loyal to it.

Misia continues at 64 years to open new avenues. "From the first song (from her new disc" Pura vida "), there is the presence of the bass clarinet. That, I have never heard before in fado," she underlines.

Her audacity and her impertinence pushed her in her new opus to also introduce electric guitar riffs.

But if the viola, the emblematic instrument of fado, is almost absent, and if its author transgresses certain codes, "Pura Vida" is indeed under the influence of fado.

"Although I defended myself, the critics listening to it all said + we can feel the fado here +", recognizes Misia. "I think it's the pathos of the voice that does that."

Fado is actually above all a way of singing, very affected and theatrical, on immutable themes. "These are texts that address existential themes, always, we will not discover powder, we are different but not new," details Misia.

This woman, born in Porto, who grew up in Barcelona, ​​lived in Paris and has lived in Lisbon since 2010, represents the third generation of a family of artists.

Elegant and eccentric, she moves away from fado to better come back to it: she again takes up a song by Amalia Rodrigues - la diva du fado--, "Lagrima" in her disc.

"The great Amalia always remains for me the goddess." Lagrima ", who speaks of a radical love, of an insane deliverance, sticks to my skin. I will sing her until the end," says Misia.

In Antonio Zambujo, "fado is only one influence among others".

Originally from Alentejo, a rural region whose polyphonic songs rocked his childhood, this singer is mainly under Brazilian influence. Bossa and samba permeate "Do Avesso", his new album.

"I fell in love with it very early on while listening to Joao Gilberto (considered the father of the bossa)," he says. "Jazz is another influence, I studied it and I listened to musicians like Chet Baker at a very young age".

"The most important thing for a musician is to listen to other music and other artists, to have new ideas that are born from new influences," said Antonio Zambujo.

In "Do Avesso", rich in timbre of various instruments, appears a new dimension, cinematographic and symphonic, with on several titles the Sinfonietta of Lisboa. With subtle winks to music hall, psychedelic pop and country music.

What about fado? Zambujo waits for the end of the disc to approach it.

© 2020 AFP