EDMONTON - Deep melancholy and great joy. That's why the song form fado is to Portugal what the tango is to Argentina, what flamenco is to Spain, and what the blues are to America. For the rising star known simply as Mariza, the fresh new fado sensation from Portugal, defining the folk form is a simple matter. "Fado is not only music but a way of feeling life," she says on the phone from Lisbon. "It's like breathing. In the neighbourhood where I grew up people would be singing it on their doorsteps, singing even if you didn't want to hear." At 29, Mariza is a mere babe when compared to fado's 200-year-old heritage, but she knows the music. She was born in Mozambique, and her family moved to Portugal when she was still an infant. They ran a fado restaurant in Lisbon where the music played live or on recordings every day, so she was absorbing the songs even before she could talk, long before she wound up working there as a waitress and finally, making music.

Mariza will tell you there's even a certain cuisine associated with fado. "It's grilled codfish with garlic and olive oil, a special soup, grilled chorizo, a kind of ham and cheese and red wine. Wine is important." Though she started singing in public at the age of five, Mariza never really thought about music as a career. Her father drew little cartoons so she could understand the words and helped search out old songs. Along the way she also grew to love Billie Holiday, Tony Bennett, Maria Callas, Paco de Lucia and James Brown, and tried singing soul and jazz, something she admits left a subconscious influence on her fado sound today.

"Thank God I have an open mind and I listened to other types of music because that has influenced me to do new things. But I never went into the studio with any ideas. I just worked and that's what happened." Her debut disc Fado Em Mim (Fado In Me) was originally recorded for fun, as a gift for family and friends and featured Mariza in a traditional setting with Portuguese guitars and upright bass. Most of the songs were classics made famous by the late great queen of fado Amelia Rodrigues. When a friend insisted on releasing it commercially in 2001, she was amazed to suddenly become a star at home and beyond Portugal, culminating with a win as Best European Artist in the BBC World Music Awards.

Her recent followup album Fado Curvo involved a more deliberate attempt to update the lyrical, melodic fado tradition with an African percussionist on a couple of tracks, and Mariza searched out poets for material she could weave into new original songs. The disc quickly won an unprecedented rank for fado in the top 10 pop albums in Portugal and hit a similar position on the world music charts in Billboard magazine.

"I respect everything about the tradition of fado, but I'm showing my vision of the music. It must take a step into the future. It's a new world and a new century. It must grow to stay alive."