About Lisboa em Fado, Baixa Chiado

About Lisboa em Fado, Baixa Chiado

Our show house, “Lisboa em Fado”, is located in the heart of Lisbon and was born from the desire to make known what is the national song of Portugal, mirror of the soul of this country and its People, and that was in 2011 considered as Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO: Fado.
“Lisboa em Fado” reflects the inspiring, sensitive, and very genuine spirit that characterizes Portugal and the Portuguese, and aspires that anyone that hears our national song within its doors can leave with Fado in its heart.

Our daily show provides our visitors a cultural and artistic experience where we seek above all, to make known to the world the song of Portugal. In addition, we hold various types of events, in our space or in another that you may prefer taking Fado to you throughout a unique and memorable experience.

The History of Fado

Fado is an urban song born in Portugal. It is sung all over its territory through the voices of the fado singers and the sound of their guitars. It mirrors the soul of the Portuguese people and all the themes that are intrinsic to each human being and with which he meets throughout his life, feelings as passion, longing, loss, joy, sadness, love, lovelessness... Deep down, all the feelings you find in the heart of every person.

Guitars in Exhibition

In our house, we have three Portuguese Guitars absolutely unique and that marked, through the brilliant guitarists who possessed and played them, in an unforgettable way the history of Fado. Get to know them better.

Raul Nery's Portuguese Guitar

Born in Lisbon in 1921, Raul Nery began his apprenticeship on the Portuguese guitar at the age of nine, having then been sponsored by the great guitarist Armandinho.
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    At the age of 16, he began his professional career, joining the cast of Retiro da Severa three months after Amália Rodrigues joined, later becoming his exclusive companion until 1954, when he finished his engineering course. Still in the 1950s, he made the acquaintance of Maria Teresa de Noronha, with whom he was an exclusive companion for twenty years.
    In 1959, at the invitation of Emissora Nacional, he formed the Raul Nery Guitar Set with Fontes Rocha, Júlio Gomes and Joel Pina, accompanying Amália Rodrigues on several albums and shows in Portugal and abroad.
    His vocation was to accompany the voice, which he did like no one else, but despite his quality, Raul Nery retired too soon from artistic life after accompanying, without exception, all the great artists of his time, consecrating himself as a one of the greatest performers of the Portuguese Guitar and an unavoidable personality in the History of Fado.
    Raul Nery left us on June 14, 2012 at the age of 91. His guitar was built in the Cacém workshops by João Pedro Grácio Júnior in 1964 and has since accompanied Raul Nery on all his recordings, namely with Amália, Maria Teresa de Noronha, Teresa Tarouca and Carlos do Carmo.

Jorge Fonte's Portuguese Guitar

Jorge Fontes is an essential figure in the history of the Portuguese guitar, he was born in Vila dos Carvalhos, Vila Nova de Gaia, in 1935, having left as a young man in the 50s for Lisbon following his participation in the Festa da Rádio program, in which he accompanied the great singer Alberto Ribeiro.
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    As a great guitarist, Jorge Fontes is the most popular Portuguese guitar player ever, having released dozens of EPs and LPs, and is also one of the guitarists who has performed the most on television and radio in Portugal and abroad.
    All of his artistic activity is associated with the Fado houses in Lisbon, where for years Jorge Fontes and his Guitar Set was headliner and had the merit of supporting the emergence of new values, as was the case of António Chaínho, who debuted as a professional in his set.
    He also owes the merit of publicizing Portuguese guitar makers, such as the cover of a record in which he lets himself be photographed in the workshop of Mestre Gilberto Grácio.
    He died in January 2010, aged 75. Kim Grácio built this guitar in 1957, and it became one of the most iconic guitars in Fado for the reason that Jorge Fontes insisted on appearing on the cover of his records with his beloved guitar, thus making it as famous as he was.

José Nunes's Portuguese Guitar

Recognized as one of the great Fado guitarists in Lisbon, José Nunes was actually born in Porto, where he was born in 1916, having received his first guitar lessons at the age of eight from a shoemaker in Pereiró.
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    José Nunes made his public debut in 1930, being a pioneer in promoting the Portuguese guitar on the radio, where he was regularly present for more than thirty years, as well as on television, being the first guitarist to appear on RTP despite always having maintained the his day job as a technician at the Companhia do Gas e Electricidade, which he had joined in 1946.

    As an author of guitars, some of the most beautiful creations for the Portuguese guitar are his. Accompanying many of the biggest names in fado, he had in Amália Rodrigues and in the Busto Album in which the compositions of Alain Oulman were sung for the first time, compositions that José Nunes himself nicknamed “Operas” due to the unusual and complex strange musical harmony then to the Fados.

    José Nunes was a reserved and demanding person, deeply perfectionist, but who had a special predilection for socializing with friends in which he played for pleasure and without being bound by programmatic restrictions. He died in Lisbon on February 23, 1979.

    João Pedro Grácio Junior built this guitar in the 1950s with which José Nunes recorded all of his most outstanding works, the most representative of which was the 1961 album Busto, considered the record that revolutionized Fado because Amália Rodrigues started singing on it. the melodies of Alain Oulman.

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