Here is a little about FADO, for my English friends....

They ask me about the Fado
I knew the man:
He was a drunk and a tramp
Who hung out in the Mouraria

He was at least as scrawny
As a greyhound dog
But he claimed to be a nobleman
Because he frequented noble folk

His father was a foundling
Who set sail across the sea
On the ships of Vasco da Gama
A scruffy, unkempt fellow
A swaggerer more than a Sailor
Of the old days of Alfama

Yes I know well where he was born
And I know he was just a commoner
Who always put on airs
I know as well that he was one of those
Who never knew his parents
Nor had a certificate of birth.

They ask me about the Fado
I knew the man:
Forever a reckless sort,

A faithful friend of disorder
Who'd enter the Moorish quarter
In the dead of night
And, opening up the half doors,
Be king of that drunken night

He went to the cattle drives,
He was a celebrated knight
He was a delerium at the carnival
And all that agitated life

He, who came from nothing
In his nothingness was all.

Biografia do Fado
Joaquim Frederico de Brito
(1930's)

Fado is the urban folk music of Portugal that appears to have its roots in the merging of the cultures of the Portuguese underclass (the Fadistas - the "fatalists") with the Portuguese-African ex-slaves who settled in the Mouraria and Alfama districts of Lisbon. It's known that guitar-accompanied dances such as the Fofa and Lundum were popular with both the Fadistas and the Africans living within these districts. Modinha, a Brazilian song-form very similar to the Fado was also popular and it's claimed that this, in combination with the dances, was the key ingredient in creating Fado music.

Alberto Pimental writing in 1904 describes its birth:
"The national plays performed in the Salitre and Rua dos Condestheatres contained Italian music, the most catchy airs of which become public property and were transformed into the modinhaswhich radiated all over the country. In these pieces were also interpolated Lundums, African dances which served as interludes.Gradually the Lundum began to take on an independent existence asa song which rapidly became the favourite of the lowest grades of society who gave it the name of Fado."

Fado conveys a yearning, a longing for that which could have been or cannot exist and most of its lyrics concern love affairs, jealousy and passion and the lives of the Fadistas. The first queen of the Fado was Maria Severa. Although Severa died when only 26 years old she defined the Fado. The daughter of a tavern owner, Severa and her mother moved into a tavern in the Mouraria when she was about 20 and it was here that she was first exposed to the world of the Fadistas.

In the mythology that surrounds Severa, it is claimed that her mastery in Fado singing was kindled by her yearning for a lover who was banished to Africa by the authorities for an unnamed crime. Severa became known to the public because of her relationship with a famous and glamorous bullfighter, the Conde de Vimioso.

Celebrating in a tavern after one of his victories in the bullring, he is said to have heard Severa's singing and at once couple began a passionate and unstable relationship.
In typical Fado style the relationship was a doomed affair, due to the resistance of the Conde's family and Severa's low social standing. Bowing to family pressures the Conde left her and Severa drank herself to death.

The story of their love affair became a huge celebrity story across the papers and to this day female Fado singers wear a black lace shawl in Severa's honour.

At the beginning of the 20th century a new form of Fado music became popular in the university town of Coimbra. Coimbra was once the capital of Portugal and is home to one of the oldest universities in Europe. The introduction of the urban folk music of Lisbon to the academic setting of Coimbra led to Coimbra Fado evolving into a very different style of music. Many purists of the Lisbon Fado remain hostile towards the Coimbra fadista´s who they feel depart too far from the authentic Fado style. Coimbra Fado is not the music of daily struggle or yearning for better times, but rather the music of sensitive young aristocrats romanticising about philosphy.

*All text and information taken from http://www.enterportugal.com/fado.html*