Fado is the musical expression of „saudade“, an emotional state unique to the Portugueses. The German phrase „Sehnsucht“ or the Japanese concept of „mono no aware“ might edge on this feeling of loss and remembrance that surrounds this people like a too strongly applied perfume, but it doesn’t sufficiently define this unique feeling. Because Fado is mainly presented in restaurants and bars in the touristic strongholds of Lisbon, you could easily mistake it as another method to milk foreigners of money. But ask any singer and he will tell you that those places are indeed the stronghold of good Fado music. But, they will add, the magic of Fado is not in the question of where it is sung, but whether „it will happen“. Whether the flame jumps from the lips of the singers and the hands of the guitarists to the hearts of the listeners. People who chose Fado as their profession do really live their songs: Whether they lost their hearts or their limbs, are left by luck, health or their spouses. All those feelings culminate in this one next song that they perform. And that is, what makes Fado unique. Not only in style, but as a vocal expression of the pride of a nation that has seen earthquakes, famines and an economic meltdown. One evening a Portuguese told me that „the people with the saddest music oftentimes are the ones who are the happiest.“
