António Zambujo sings fado with the voice of an angel. Undulating with honeyed tones, it is a voice of remarkable warmth and beauty, which marries the masculine and the feminine.
António Zambujo is in love with fado and the vertiginous emotions that it inspires. But he also understands how we can be held captive by the bonds of love. Thus he seeks out spaces where he can fly free, allowing himself the pleasure of digression.
Born in Beja, in the southern Portuguese region of Alentejo, he was 24 when Amália Rodrigues died in 1999. He says he cried that day, listening to one of the diva’s CDs on a loop. “There was a fado before Amália, and another after Amália. She profoundly changed things forever”.
There are other sources, every bit as fertile. There is fado and then… truly inspiring paths taken elsewhere. “I am connected to the whole of the Portuguese-speaking world”, he says. The Cape Verdean morna and the father of bossa nova, Vinícius de Moraes (“the greatest poet in the Portuguese language”) also provide him with essential nourishment. “I have all Caetano Veloso’s albums – the best singer in the world – and all those of Chico Buarque, of Tom Waits, of Chet Baker… When I like something, I am a bit compulsive”.
After being CD champion sales in Portugal with his 5th album, Platinium CD, this elegant singer with the charming smile releases his six album, the one of maturity.