Portrait

Antonio Zambujo

Note from Caetano Veloso on his blog : obraemprogresso.com.br , October 2008
"…o que se ouve em Zambujo é algo já que vai mais fundo. É um jovem cantor de fado que, intensificando mais a tradição do que muitos de seus contemporâneos, faz pensar em João Gilberto e em tudo que veio à música brasileira por causa dele."

"What we hear in Zambujo’s is someting going really deep inside. He is a young fado singer, who gives more value to tradition than lots of his contemporaries and remind us to João Gilberto and to what all brazilian music received thanks to him."

António Zambujo was born in Beja, Alentejo (South of Portugal) in 1975. He grew up listening to the traditional male chant called ‘Cante Alentejano’ that became one of his strongest influences. Around the age of 8, Zambujo started studying clarinet but soon he fell in love with Fado when listening to Amália Rodrigues, Alfredo Marceneiro, Maria Teresa de Noronha and João Ferreira Rosa. And it was singing, when he was 16 years old, that he won a regional Fado contest. His professional career started when Mário Pacheco, the renowned Portuguese guitarist and composer, invited him to sing in his Club de Fado, in Lisbon. Not for a long time though… After an audition, António was chosen to take the role of Francisco da Cruz, Amalia’s first husband, in the blockbuster Musical ‘Amália’. He performed continuously during 4 years in Lisbon and after that he toured all around Portugal achieving enormous success. ‘It was a unique experience that taught me the stage «feeling» plus the strict working discipline of a theatre company’. In 2002 his first record ‘O mesmo Fado’ was released. Though you can find in it, as in all Zambujo’s records, some influences of ´Cante Alentejano’, the record achieved great recognition in the “Fado world’. Several songs were chosen to be part of major Fado anthologies and António Zambujo won the prestigious ‘Radio Nova FM’ prize for the ‘Best new Fado voice’ that was previously addressed to Mariza, Camané and Mafalda Arnauth. The 2004’s ‘Por meu cante’ gave us some clues about Zambujo’s future artistic path. His homeland influences were clearer, the merge between ‘Cante Alentejano’ and Fado was always present and, though it happened to be somehow controversial, no impeachment was called. António Zambujo won the Amália Rodrigues Foundation’s prize for the Best Fado Male Singer. 2007 is a significant year in Zambujo’s career. His third record ‘Outro sentido’ is a statement from a mature artist that has found his own particular way. Also the remarkable Lisbon’s festival closing concert and the duet with Luís Represas, a top pop singer, have shown that Zambujo and his music are really difficult to label.