“Portuguesa” were ten days at Namouche studio in Lisbon, in March 2022 and the two years that preceded them. I keep looking for the vertigo where I can find, with new combinations of the same matrix, my identity. It’s the story I’ve been writing, my origins, influences and the music I see myself in.”
Carminho writes these first lines to summarize her new work entitled "Portuguesa". The great voice of fado and one of the Portuguese artists with the greatest international projection signs the production of the new album and with it traces a world tour.
Daughter of the renowned fado singer Teresa Siqueira, Carminho was born in the middle of guitars and fado voices, having marked her debut singing in public at the age of twelve, at Coliseu dos Recreios (Lisbon). Early on she was tempted to record albums but decided to wait.
She graduated in Marketing and Advertising and realized that singing required a maturity and a world she didn't yet have. For a year she travels the world, participates in humanitarian missions and returns to Lisbon determined to give herself entirely to an artistic career.
"Fado", her first album, is released in 2009. Reaches platinum (an enviable result for a debut), received the distinction of best album of 2011 from the British magazine "Songlines", performed at Womex 2011 (Copenhagen) and at UNESCO's Paris headquarters as part of Fado's application for world heritage status. To all this adds a tour in which she spreads her voice and talent through various territories. In the same year, she collaborates with Pablo Alborán in "Perdoname" and becomes the first Portuguese artist to reach number 1 in the Spanish charts.
In 2012, she released her second album, entitled "ALMA". After touring the main venues in Europe and the World, she fulfilled her dream of recording with Milton Nascimento, Chico Buarque and Nana Caymmi, which resulted in a reissue of "Alma" with three new songs. Carminho began to conquer Brazil with sold-out concerts. The affirmation as the most international of Portuguese artists is consummate and distinguished in Portugal with a Golden Globe and the Carlos Paredes Award, seeing both her albums reach the double platinum mark.
"Canto" is released in late 2014 and her relationship with Brazil takes even deeper roots, with the first partnership of Caetano Veloso with his youngest son Tom, who offer her the unreleased "O Sol, Eu e Tu". "Canto" also includes the single "Chuva no Mar", which features Marisa Monte and she signs the co-writing of the theme with Arnaldo Antunes.
This very strong relationship with Brazil reaches one of its most consistent moments already in 2016, following an invitation from the family of António Carlos Jobim and records "Carminho canta Tom Jobim", with the last band that accompanied him live in his last ten years, sharing themes with Chico Buarque, Maria Bethânia and Marisa Monte. Awards and platinum success follow the release of the album.
"Maria" is the title that Carminho chose for the fifth of her career, an album that she signs the production and includes several songs of her own. An exciting album that assimilates everything that Carminho learned directly from her fado roots, respecting the truth of the words and the traditional language, but at the same time with a free and contemporary look at the world that inspires her, reinterpreting much of what she learned with fado since childhood.