At 29, fado singer Mariza is already a shining star

By James Reed, Globe Correspondent, 5/9/2003

The groggy voice on the other end of the phone is faint and slightly strained, perhaps befitting a woman who sang plaintive fado for two hours the night before. It is noon in Montreal, and Portuguese singer Mariza has been awake for the past hour in her hotel room, watching DVDs of Maria Callas in concert.

''I've been learning from her by the way she carried herself onstage,'' Mariza says of the opera singer. ''She was singing lyrical music, and she was so powerful and made you really understand the emotions of her music.''

Fado fans can make the same claim about Mariza. At 29, she is a superstar of the centuries-old Portuguese art form and has sold hundreds of thousands of albums. The BBC Awards for World Music named her ''Best European Artist'' this year. Her ascent has been swift. She released her first album, ''Fado em Mim,'' just two years ago. On the heels of her latest release, this year's ''Fado Curvo,'' she has become the most popular singer in Portugal.

''It's the voice,'' says Daniel Carreiro, a 35-year-old Warren, R.I., resident who's coming to tomorrow's show with other Portuguese friends from New Bedford. ''She has this voice that is perfectly clear and crisp and yet deep and emotional; it's like Amalia's. In fact, when I played Mariza for my father, he said, `Oh, I know who this is. It's Amalia.'''

No female fado singer can dodge comparisons to the genre's late beloved ''Queen of Fado,'' Amalia Rodrigues, who died in 1999. By now Mariza is used to the comparison, but finds it humbling. ''I'm very flattered, of course, but when people think of Amalia, they think of this great artist in her [prime]. I'm only 29. I need to work a lot and grow a lot to be compared to her. When they say I'm like Amalia, I think they put the line too high. If I sing a song that Amalia made famous, I don't think about being like her because then it becomes too difficult. I don't think when I sing fado. I just sing.''

The fact that Mariza is on another world tour at all is a feat for her, she says. ''Last year was very hard for me because I lost myself for a while.'' Now, she says, the trick is not to know her own schedule. ''I don't think like I used to. Now concerts are shows for friends and interviews are conversations with friends.''

Mariza is mindful of her youth and the power it brings to her sturdy singing. ''When I'm onstage, I give everything. They tell me I must not sing so powerful, but I prefer to give it all now when I'm young and not when I'm old and no one wants to hear me.'' She says most of her fans these days don't speak Portuguese, so she always explains the music to her audience in their language. ''I know we are not talking the same language, and you have to understand this poetry if you're going to appreciate fado.''

She says her latest album is the best introduction to her art. ''This new album is me. Even if I do more records, `Fado Curvo' is going to be the record I always remember and keep in mind,'' she says. ''The first one I did to sell in the fado houses and to give to my friends. But if I'm going to show my music, I have to show myself.''

And finally, there is her dramatic image - the specially made designer attire and the cap of tightly waved bleached-blond hair. But whatever you do, don't tell her it's an image. ''This is not an image. This is who I am. If you know me, you're going to see I'm a very natural person. I don't fake anything,'' she says. Then she giggles and trips over her words when told that it's a gorgeous image. ''Oh, well ... yes, thank you,'' she says brightly.

''Her look is fresh and new,'' Carreiro says, ''and it attracts a younger audience to fado. They call Amalia the queen, so I guess Mariza is the princess. In the future maybe she'll be the queen.''

Mariza performs tomorrow at

8 p.m. at Berklee Performance Center. Tickets $22-$28. Call

617-931-2000.

This story ran on page C12 of the Boston Globe on 5/9/2003.