Mariza began singing fado before she could read.  Her father drew pictures for her so she could remember the lyrics.  

It makes you wonder what figures her father drew for fado's traditional thrmes of betrayal, despair, adultery and revenge.

Fado is the blues of Portugal, an earthy style of music, played partly with traditional acoustic instruments, with laid back rhythms and soaring, often pained vocals.
Mariza, a genuine sensation in Europe, remains faithful enough to the traditional song form to please die-hard fans, but adds a jazz singers phrasing and improvisation.  

In the gentle opener, "O Silencio da Guitarra," she sings, "when the soul becomes immense/ The sadness also sings/ In an almost still weeping."  It doesn't matter that it's all in Portuguese.  When Mariza sings, you don't have to understand Portuguese to understand fado.  Her voice is so evocative, so powerfully melancholy, she transcends language.