Mariza was interviewed by phone from Spain, where she was about to perform en route to Philadelphia for a show Wednesday at the Perelman Theater. She said she took a totally different approach to her latest record, Fado Curvo, which has hit platinum status in Portugal. "Everyone was expecting certain things from me for this record. Finally, I decided that I would just close myself in the studio with my producer, and record everything by the third take. I didn't want anyone else to hear this record until it was done. In fact, I was not expecting anyone to be interested in what I was feeling at that moment. But I was surprised that everyone enjoyed the record. I am very happy with that."
In the last few years, fado, the mournful, modal "blues" of Portugal, has become one of world music's most clamored-after genres. Mariza joins Portuguese divas such as Dulce Pontes, Misia and Cristina Branco in this new group of stars. Born in Mozambique of mixed Portuguese, German, English and African (but not Mozambican) roots, she grew up in Lisbon in a home of fado lovers, in a bairro where fado was sung in small clubs every night.
She began singing at 5 and still sometimes doubts her talents. "Fado is like my second skin. I don't have to think or plan when I sing. I just breathe, and it comes out naturally, the way I wish it to come," Mariza said. "But I have always had a different way to singing fado, and sometimes, when people talk about different things, or new ways of doing things, it sometimes has a bad connotation."
Mariza at the Perelman Theater at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Tickets: $32. Information: 215-893-1999.
