Vocalist infuses Portugal's fado with world flavor

There is no real definition for fado, the languid, darkly passionate blues-like folk and popular music form Portugal has so generously given the rest of the world. But when Mariza, the Portuguese star of this genre, speaks generally about what she does as a musician, you can read between the lines and get a very good approximation of what fado means to her.

"Perfect music doesn't exist," she said. "But I want to be perfect. When I am onstage, I use everything, everything I have. I open my Pandora's box and I take out all of my feelings, because [fado] is a music that draws upon all the feelings of a human being - doubt, jealousy, longing, fate, destiny, joy, happiness, passion, love, lost love - everything that is part of life is included inside of this music."

Mariza dos Reis Nunes was born in 1973 in what was then Loureno Marques (now Maputo), Mozambique, a colony, or "overseas province," of Portugal in southeastern Africa. Her father was Portuguese, her mother a native of Mozambique. Her family moved to Lisbon in 1976, shortly after two related events - a coup in Portugal and the subsequent liberation of its African colonies. There, Mariza grew up in an area known for its fado clubs and bars, and she spent many nights in her own family's establishment, learning how to sing.

And now, despite her protestations, Mariza is seen, at least by many, as the heir apparent to Amlia Rodrigues, the late, great Queen of Fado, despite the presence of other, young Portuguese fadistas such as Dulce Pontes, Katia Guerreiro, and Misia. But Mariza doesn't take the bait.

"Amlia is Amlia, and Mariza is Mariza," she said. "She doesn't need comparisons to anyone."

It is interesting, if not ironic, though, that a woman from the larger Portuguese-speaking world, the ultramar, is carrying the flag for a song style seen as the quintessential expression of Portuguese traditional culture. But Mariza, explaining that fado's origins were just as North African and West African as they were Iberian, said that her multicultural background was perfect to represent today's Portugal.