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55 albums · 1961–2024

Music of Portugal, from fado and the songs of April to the rock of Lisbon and Porto, rap, kuduro and today

· 2 min read · by 1001 Albums

Amália Rodrigues singing at a microphone in a long dark dress, a guitarist beside her
Mariza singing into a hand microphone in a sequinned dressSalvador Sobral in a dark suit singing at a microphone stand on a blue-lit stage
Amália Rodrigues at the Grand Gala du Disque in Amsterdam, 1969. Photo: Anefo, Nationaal Archief, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Mariza at the Fado Mexico festival in Mexico City, 2022. Photo: Tania Victoria, Secretaría de Cultura de la Ciudad de México, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Salvador Sobral rehearsing for Eurovision 2017 in Kyiv, which he won. Photo: Roger Dewayne Barkley, EuroVisionary, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Portugal's popular music has a song of its own, fado, sung in the taverns and fado houses of Lisbon's old quarters to the Portuguese guitar and the viola: Alfredo Marceneiro, Amália Rodrigues's Busto and Com Que Voz, Carlos Paredes's guitar on its own and Carlos do Carmo's Um Homem na Cidade; beside it the songs of the years before and after 1974, Zeca Afonso's Cantigas do Maio with Grândola, Vila Morena, which the radio played as a signal on the night of the 25th of April 1974, José Mário Branco and Sérgio Godinho, recorded in Paris, Quarteto 1111, Banda do Casaco and Fausto's Por Este Rio Acima; then the rock that followed Rui Veloso's Ar de Rock, UHF, Heróis do Mar, GNR, Xutos & Pontapés, Sétima Legião and Mler Ife Dada, José Cid's prog and Lena d'Água's pop, Quim Barreiros's pimba, Madredeus and Rodrigo Leão, Mão Morta from Braga, Moonspell's metal, the Porto of Pedro Abrunhosa, Ornatos Violeta and Clã, the fado of Dulce Pontes, Mísia, Camané, Mariza, Carminho, Gisela João and Ana Moura, António Zambujo with the cante of the Alentejo, the pipes of Gaiteiros de Lisboa, Bernardo Sassetti's jazz piano, the rap of Da Weasel, Sam the Kid, Capicua and Slow J, Buraka Som Sistema's kuduro, the morna and funaná of Sara Tavares and Dino d'Santiago, Deolinda, B Fachada, Linda Martini and Dead Combo, Salvador Sobral, who won Eurovision in 2017, and Conan Osíris, Pedro Mafama and Ana Lua Caiano today. The list has 55 records from 1961 to 2024, one or two by each of the names above and only a small part of what they made; Adriano Correia de Oliveira is missing because Deezer has his songs only as singles and a collected edition, and the fado of Coimbra, the songs and dances of the regions from the Minho to the Azores and Madeira, the pimba beyond a nod and classical music would each need a list of their own. About 42 hours of music, 5 days of a few records each.

By genre

Rock 26%World 24%Folk & Country 14%Other 36%
  • Rock 26%
  • World 24%
  • Folk & Country 14%
  • Other 36%

The genres named most: fado, rock, folk, pop, pop rock, hip hop.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 1 country: Portugal 55. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Countries first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.