MARIZA
Portuguese fado is often stereotyped as melancholic music, but it is more about expressing deep, authentic emotions. The singer Mariza has been making that connection with audiences around the world for more than 20 years.
Mariza was born (as Marisa dos Reis Nunes) in Mozambique but moved with her family to Lisbon as a young girl and quickly became enamored of the fado that played nightly in her parents’ taverna in the historic district of Mouraria. Now, instead of watching wide-eyed from the top of the taverna’s staircase, the multi-platinum singer will be front and center, onstage at Prudential Hall at NJPAC, Oct. 25 at 8 p.m. Visit ticketmaster.com.
“This tour is a celebration of my journey as an artist,” Mariza says. “I am performing songs from different stages of my career, including some of the classics that my audience loves, but also new material from the upcoming album. Each concert is an emotional journey, and I love the energy exchange between the audience and me.”
Mariza balances her dramatic singing with lively songs from other Portuguese traditions and amiable chats with her audiences. While her voice can and does shake the rafters, she also can wrest the emotional power of fado’s poetic lyrics with her precise and textured delivery, moving from a doleful cry to an urgent whisper.
In many of her shows, she will sit down with one or two of her bandmates and sing without a microphone, creating an intimacy even within the large concert halls she now plays.
“I love creating those intimate moments during my concerts, where it’s just me and the audience — no amplifiers, no distance,” she says. “It brings me closer to the roots of my music, which was always meant to be a personal, shared experience.”
The cover of Mariza’s 2020 album, “Mariza Canta Amália.”
While Mariza has not released an album since Mariza Canta Amália, her 2020 tribute to fado icon Amália Rodrigues, she is about to put out a new one called Amor.
“The new album has been a journey of reflection and evolution,” she says. “It explores themes of love, nostalgia, and identity, all rooted deeply in the tradition of fado but with contemporary elements. I’m excited because it represents where I am now, as both an artist and a person. The energy and emotions that fado brings are still at the heart, but I’ve woven in new influences, creating a more diverse soundscape.”
Her 2001 debut, Fado em Mim, was a worldwide hit, selling 100,000 albums in Portugal alone — an unheard-of amount for a fado record. From the start, her albums have always been deeply rooted in fado, even as she has lovingly tugged it out of its traditional dark-and-stormy trappings. Most recently, she collaborated with Portuguese rappers for two singles. On “Desamor” (see video below), she dueted with Gson, who is known as a rapper but showed off some impassioned crooning.
“My collaboration with Gson was quite organic,” she says. “We hadn’t worked together before, but I was familiar with his work. We met through our mutual agent, and after a few conversations about music, we both felt inspired to collaborate. His modern take on music, combined with the soul of my music, created something truly unique.”
Along with her signature look of short, cropped platinum hair and long, elaborate gowns, Mariza has extended vines of roses from her back and shoulder down her right arm.
“They represent both the beauty and the pain that life brings,” she says. “Just like a rose, life is beautiful, but it has its thorns. It’s a reminder of resilience, and it’s something I carry with me in my music as well.”
The cover of Mariza’s 2001 album, “Fado em Mim.”
The daughter of a Portuguese father and a Mozambican mother, Mariza often cites the influence of her maternal grandmother and the ties to her birthplace.
“I’m actually travelling to Mozambique in December,” she says. “It’s a place that holds a special place in my heart. It’s my home, where most of my family lives. The connection I feel to the land and the people is profound, I have performed there and there are no words that can describe what I feel when I’m there.”
Mariza’s initial forays into music as a professional were in jazz and pop, because fado was considered “old-fashioned” and had been out of favor for years. It had become associated with the country’s dictatorship, which promoted it heavily to stoke nationalism. In the years after the regime’s fall, the music was weighed down by those associations with the past. Mariza was one of the first of a new generation of singers to bring fado back as well as introduce it to the world.
“Fado has grown so much since I began singing it,” she says. “There’s a new wave of artists who are bringing their own stories and voices into the tradition, which is beautiful to see. At the same time, it remains deeply connected to its roots. I think there’s a wonderful balance now between innovation and tradition, and that’s what keeps it alive and relevant.”
For more on Mariza, visit mariza.com.
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