The blues, the gritty music of the laboring class, is most often associated with the harsh realities of life lived in the margins. Though uniquely American in its blending of spirituals, field hollers and praise songs, the spirit of the blues can be found in any culture. In Portugal, the music that puts these experiences to song is called fado. Often dubbed Portuguese blues, fado, which means "fate," is the melancholy, soulful, music that has come to define the urban experience of love, loneliness and loss. Like purveyors of the American variety, fado singers or fadistas, must use their voices to evoke emotional depth over all else, evident in the somber black clothing performers traditionally wear.

Generations of fadistas have left their mark, starting with Maria Severa who lived during the first half of the 19th century, and Amalia Rodrigues who introduced the most well known variety of the music during the last. Of the newest generation of fado singers, Mozambican-Portuguese fado sensation mariza is considered to be one of the best.

With her six-foot frame draped in designer gowns and cropped, platinum hair blazing as much as her bling, mariza personifies old-school star quality but her talents extend much further than that.

"I don't do the black hair and shawl," she explains. "People say, wow, this is not the image of a fado singer. I'd wear purple and yellow and orange with blonde hair and people said, who is this crazy woman?" I just think the best thing an artist can do is be sincere to who they are." Gifted with shimmering, expansive, vocals to match her presence, mariza delivers a stunning range of feelings. Her recent CD Concerto Em Lisboa (Times Square) showcases her skill with an array of roaring crescendos and delicate murmurs, sometimes all in one verse.

The roots of fado are buried in Africa as well as Portugal. Portuguese imperialism extended to Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde as well as Brazil and as the populations intermingled, so did the cultures. Fado originally referred to a popular Afro-Brazilian dance, which often had guitar accompaniment. In Lisbon, the Portuguese love for poetry was added to the mix and the genre was born in the 1830s, popping up in hardscrabble areas with large groups of African and Brazilian immigrants.

mariza's African-Portuguese identity closely mirrors that development.
"I left Mozambique when I was really young but my mom always tried to pass on the message of African culture," says mariza. "She never let me forget that side of my roots and I think subconsciously, that African side shows on stage."

mariza sings in Portuguese but it's really not necessary to understand the language; she connects beyond any barrier. Her concerts and albums have sold out everywhere from London to DC, with a North American tour scheduled to start later this year.

"I was singing in Shanghai and I thought, they're not going to understand," she says. "But everybody understands feelings. Fado is a music that explores the feelings of life. If you go to a taverna and hear fado, it¹s like cleansing your soul and you can breathe again."