Mafalda Arnauth

• country:Portugal
• style(s):Fado
• label:Universal Music Portugal
• type:Band, Solo
• gender:female
• instrumentation:vocal
• artist posted by:Kino Music srl

Links

• Mafalda Arnauth Website

Mafalda Arnauth was born in Lisbon in 1974, and music has been a passion for her since she was a young girl. The freshness of a young "flawless" voice captivated listeners initially by its spontaneity, it then delighted fans by updating collective Portuguese memory via a string of previous hits, and finally proved itself by its very nature, by the compositions themselves and her personality.

She was 24 when she began her career with an album produced by Joao Gil, and this won the "Blitz" publication's Revelation Award. The following year she was nominated for the "Golden Globes" as best singer. Her concerts all over the world ultimately manifest her own personality; Mafalda reveals herself through her songs, and she now feels the need to extend her repertoire in order to make her own small contribution to culture in her country. On every continent she leaves vestiges of the past which inspired her, the present inside her, and her ambitions for the future. In particular, what Mafalda Arnauth wants is to communicate ...

But nobody born in Portugal stays away from their country for too long. In response to the almost unexpected success of the first album, in September 2000 she sang at a sell-out concert in Lisbon's Belen Culture Centre, just one year after the launch of her first record, and a long tour of stages in Portugal and overseas.

In March 2001 she brought out her second record, "This voice going through me" (EMI), with production work this time by Amelia Muge and Jose Martins, and Ricardo Rocha (Portuguese guitar), Jose Elmiro Nunes (guitar) and Paulo Paz (double bass). From the poetry of Helia Correia to the music of Fausto Bordalo Dias, this was a time of deep artistic and personal growth. Shortly afterwards, Mafalda became the first Portuguese artiste with international representation through Virgin Records.

In October 2001 she sang at her second concert at the Lisbon Culturgest hall, which was sold out weeks beforehand. Again, this signalled the commencement of a tour around a number of European capitals for an enriched artiste, more experienced, definitely more real and defined by an extended repertoire and maturity following a period of continuous work. Throughout 2001 and 2002 she performed on countless occasions, a reflection of the indisputable projection of the artiste and the golden period of fados more interviews, talks, a resurgence of new values and preparations began for the third album.

Mafalda Arnauth took a long rest from touring to rediscover the pleasure of penning songs, writing about the soul and its mysteries. Inventing new ways of "telling" life. And her fados are enhanced in terms of pleasure and happiness.

She produced her third album herself, and on this occasion her fados almost completely abandoned fatality, sorrow and shadows. Sadness nourished her in the search for hope; suffering, in the search for inspiration; difficulties gave her strength and support. 2003 will be remembered as a year of grace, since she completed the recording sessions with the satisfaction of someone who has reached a spiritual peace which may only be obtained when we have really found what we are looking for. Mafalda is enjoying the present, in the words of Sophia de Mello Breyner: "I will drink the light and the dawn, I will drink the voice of that promise which sometimes flies through me, and I will fulfil my entire being."

Mafalda Arnauth's strength and soul have been renewed, and she is making ready to release her deepest enchantments ("Encantamiento")...
Side by side with her career changes, Mafalda Arnauth has also evolved in her personal habits, setting herself off to a much healthier life. The demands of an increasingly absorbing professional life with an average of 15 live performances per month have "obliged" her to opt for new rules in diet, sleep, exercise and singing techniques, as well as the emotional background to sustain all the above.
This person is the Mafalda Arnauth who gave us her fifth album, Diario, launched on 31st October 2005. This is probably the most up-close and personal of them all, given the fact that it is almost like a diary. The new album captures the widest possible range of her life inspirations relationships (of friendship, of love, happy, sad, break-ups, disappointments, new hopes...); the magic of special rendezvous; her artistic references (Amalia Rodrigues, Maria Bethania, Charles Aznavour, Astor Piazzolla...); her partnerships; and her own personal walk though life, guided by inner visions of philosophy, attitude and vision, as well as her options, doubts and tribulations...
This record promotes, therefore, the synthesis between the current life of Mafalda Arnauth and all the factors and vectors that made her what she is today. Creatively dual and certainly unique, its diversity ranges from the traditional Fado to the new contents and issues of everyday life, set on putting aside the idea that this music genre is fated to dwell, forever and ever, in a shrouded universe of dark and heavy sadness.
There is much strength in the temerity of stating, as she does in one of her new songs, "Audacia": "away he goes, the dark fado; away with the walls of fear".

The new album Flor de Fado, has been released in 2008.
Mafalda Arnauth tells us about her new work: Flor de Fado intends to precisely be the garden where Sensitivity, Love, Diversity, Beauty, the Unconditional quality of Being can find their home, transparency, in the eternal words our greatest poets, in the sensitive words of those who write with art and with the heart or simply in my own more truthful words. Most of all, Flor de Fado wants to be the place where one can contemplate and listen to the Soul with the same delight we appreciate a unique Flower. The Flower, personal and not transferable, that each one of us Is.