With five studio albums and two Latin Grammy nominations already under her belt (one of which was garnered for her most recent album, Terra), Mariza has proven herself as a promising musician and certainly the front-runner of the new wave in fado music. Is it the sheer commanding force behind her voice, her infectious and moving energy, or her strikingly aesthetic personal style that has set her aside from other artists? The combination of all these attributes endows her with the breathtaking ability to move her listeners to the height of experiencing the pain and beauty of being alive.

As a now well-established artist, Mariza has included traditional songs as well as more experimental tracks on Terra. “Rosa Branca,” a reinvigorated classic, shows off the grace and allure of the Portuguese language coupled with a simple yet skillful acoustic guitar as accompaniment. “As Guitarras” goes in another direction, infusing the customary fado style with a jazzy piano and an upright bass, while keeping a flamenco-inspired acoustic guitar in place.

Most compelling are her songs that capture the essence of saudade, which has no exact translation to English but can be described as the overpowering nostalgia and yearning for something which is gone. “Minh’alma,” a song of supreme soul-searching, artfully paints a portrait of desperately grasping for one’s true direction and purpose in this life, while “Alma de Vento” is characterized by such genuine wistful emotion that she may have captured the sound of a breaking heart.

While the studio recordings are flawless, Mariza is a natural-born live performer whose concerts are filled to the brim with emotional crescendos and artistic elegance. She’ll be touring across the United States starting in February.

By: Ashley Schaeffer