Emotional performance: Mariza played Barbican Hall
 
Mariza dos Reis Nunes sings it like she means it. "Oh Soul! My Soul," she emotes in Portuguese, one hand outstretched in front of her, the other thumping her heart. "Tell me who I am/Tell me where I'm bound." She doesn't need to ask: Mariza is the greatest star of contemporary fado. Her theatrical shows and clutch of albums, including the Latin Grammy-nominated Terra (Earth), have reinvented the traditional music of Portugal. With her voice of operatic proportions she is bound for legend.
 
Swishing about the stage in a black designer gown, her hair a shiny silver crop, the statuesque Afro-Portuguese singer performed with the effortless confidence that comes from playing Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House.
 
Last year the architect Frank Gehry recreated a Lisbon taverna for her show at his Walt Disney Concert Hall; here, Mariza conjured an imaginary fado haunt aided by five black-garbed musicians, each in his own spotlight.
 
Favourites such as Maria Lisboa and Meu Fado Meu were delivered with a trademark mix of verve and restraint, getting all three tiers clapping in time or listening in pin-drop silence.
 
There were flourishes from Angelo Freire on the heart-shaped Portuguese guitar, and an impressive percussion solo by Hugo Marques; Simon Wandsworth left off piano to add poignant trumpet to the Cape Verdean morna, Beijo de Saudade.
 
During Tasco da Mouraria, a song dedicated to her father, Mariza crouched on the rim of the stage, her head in her arms. When, after a guitar interlude, she looked up, there were tears streaming down her face.