Mariza, a rising international star who sings the traditional Portuguese style called fado, will perform Friday at Tilles Center.
WHO IS MARIZA? Born in Mozambique, Mariza was raised in a traditional quarter of Lisbon, where she began singing fado at the age of 5 in her parents' taverna. After dabbling with popular styles, she cut a well-received album of fado songs in 2001 and never looked back. Fado, she says, "was always my destiny." Today, she is one of the preeminent stars of world music, performing at the 2004 Athens Olympics with Sting and at the 2002 World Cup.
Mariza is touring in support of her latest album, "Terra," which won a Latin Grammy, and channels the poignant poetry of fado, but varies its blue hues a bit. After touring the world for seven years, she said in an interview, "I put in everything I saw."
She is now beginning a three-month U.S. tour, her longest stretch abroad, and says she is "scared, excited and nervous."
WHAT IS FADO? Like flamenco from neighboring Spain, fado is an intimate, passionate music that worships the unearthing of deep emotions. Fado, whose origins go back to the early 19th century, is typically played in a small group featuring the jangly sounding Portuguese guitar. For more than 50 years, fado was dominated by the late Amália Rodrigues, a black-clad figure whose highly dramatic performances defined the genre. During her reign, the genre also became associated with Portugal's dictatorship, but a younger generation of musicians has seen it with new eyes and is reinvigorating it.
WHAT THE AUDIENCE CAN EXPECT
With her close-cropped platinum hair and eye-popping gowns, Mariza looks very much the diva, but she has a soft-spoken charm. Once the sad guitars begin, however, Mariza unfurls a powerful but controlled voice, making each song a launching pad for the deeply felt words of the poets who wrote them. While the genre is known for melancholy, Mariza pulls off an enviable high-wire act, plumbing the depths, without sinking into them. The result is a bracing exploration of emotions and an operalike display of vocal power and agility.
-- Marty Lip
02/25/09 >> 
