Fado

I admit I am a slacker when it comes to preparing my itinerary during my travels but I one thing I was sure I wanted to see is live Fado in Portugal.

Fado originated in 1800’s Lisbon. It usually is a singer with acoustic guitar players. The music is slow and played in a dark restaurant.

I booked reservations ahead of time at Povo Lisboa. The reservation was for approximately 2 hours but I think we stayed longer; we witnessed 3 performances.

The restaurant happened to be on the same pink street we were on the night before.

Inside is intimate. We were lucky with our reservation and had a central and upfront table.

Orders for food and drink are taken as soon as possible because there is no service during performances.

We ordered some appetizers to share and a bottle of wine. I was sure to order a cheese plate. The soft cheese on the platter was pretty much magical.

Soon after we get our food the singer and guitar players come out. The singer sings slow Portuguese songs with her passionate voice. She is smartly dressed in a glitter dress but is wearing white tennis shoes, I am assuming for comfort. She has already impressed me.

I am very happy with the performance. Below is a small excerpt (didn’t want to video tape the whole thing.

A week later when I returned to Lisboa and stopped into Coracao de Alfama for another performance. Here I caught the tail in of a male singer but the later sets again had a very powerful female singer. It was too dark to good photos but here is the restaurant in between breaks.

Another morning I happened to walk by this famous Fado singers wall. It is a great tradition I was happy to view during my visit.