Deolinda

Deolinda
Deolinda live in Monchique
Background information
Origin	Lisbon, Portugal
Genres	Portuguese Fado World music Folk
Years active	2006–present
Labels	EMI
Website	www.deolinda.com.pt
Members	Ana Bacalhau Luís José Martins Pedro da Silva Martins José Pedro Leitão

Deolinda is an acoustic Portuguese “neofado” group, whose music often deals with social and political commentary. Founded in 2006, their first album was released in 2008, which went double platinum. Their second was in the top ten in Portugal for over fifteen weeks. They have toured the United States, Canada and Europe and have played at festivals such as the World Music Expo, Mawazine and the Festival Internacional Cervantino.

Deolinda was founded in 2006 as an acoustic group named after a fictional young women, who loves fado and comments on contemporary Portugal. Singer Ana Bacalhau stated that she is “the sum of our four personalities.”

The group has four members, singer Ana Bacalhau, brothers (and Ana's cousins) Pedro da Silva Martins and Luís José Martins, and Ana's husband José Pedro Leitão. All four had been involved in various musical activities before Deolinda. Ana Bacalhau was a fado-jazz punker in a band called Lupanar (2001-2006), which was much more macabre and cutting. Luís José Martins (guitar, ukulele, viola, Portuguese cavaco, and guitarlele) is conservatory trained, and double bass player José Pedro Leitão has a classical and jazz background.

The ensemble's origin was over a dinner between Ana, her cousins and Zé Pedro discussing the idea of collaborating. They stated they pulled out their instruments and found they had an unspoken “chemistry.” They quickly became popular in clubs, with a reputation gained by word-of-mouth, attracting attention from record labels by 2007.

Their debut album Canção Ao Lado (2008) went double-platinum in Portugal with shows beginning to sell out. The album remained one of the most popular in Portugal for over two years. Their second album, Dois Selos E Um Carimbo (2010), was in the top ten in the country for fifteen weeks after it came out.

Although strongly associated with fado (lit. fate), a usually dark and somber form of Portuguese music, they do not play it, at least not traditionally. Traditional fado faded during Portugal’s dictatorship in the 20th century, but it has made a comeback, by a generation that grew up on Pearl Jam and Nirvana, but who also rediscovered the recordings of their grandparents’ generation. This rediscovery, created a new wave of fado, sometimes called neofado, which includes artists such as Mariza, Dulce Pontes and Ana Moura, who respect the classics (e.g. the work of Amália Rodrigues), but have created their own versions, generally fusing other musical styles and/or using electrified instruments.

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