Finally there she is, former Madredeus vocalist Teresa Salgueiro was in Istanbul again, promoting her solo album O Mistério. With short black hair and double-breasted black dress she was definitely impressive. There were 5 musicians including her on the stage; the accordionist Carisa Marcelino resembles Souad Massi a lot.
Teresa has a very soft voice; I would even call it baby-like despite being over 45. And sometimes it makes you feel as if you are listening to an aria. Teresa spent half of her life as the vocalist of Madredeus, so she wanted commemorate the band with “Guittarra”. Also, on her encore she sang Madredeus’ most popular song “O Pastor”.
She mentioned a song in her new album is about the ones who had to leave their countries. At first I thought she was talking about refugees but I was wrong. Of course, it was the sailors and fado story again J You know, being an oceanic country Portuguese men sailed a lot. Not only sailed, discovered, imprisoned and also colonized. So the women whom they left behind mourned after them with songs. This is what made Fado today, Portuguese folk music: Fado = fate, and saudade = yearning.
She explained the philosophy of O Mistério, it has become an album where she reflected her attitude to life. As far as I have understood she is a religious person. She mentioned that each person is responsible for each word coming out of his/her mouth even for the gestures. All these small things can change humanity. As we, humans are created. She described the instrumental song Nuvens/Clouds as the gates of the heaven. It was really a wonderful song.
Being from Lisbon, she also compared Istanbul with her homeland. Both with bridges and estuaries, both hosted many cultures for centuries. However one is by the ocean, other is the intersection point of Europe & Asia.
Besides her album, she included some legendary Portuguese musicians in her repertoire such as Amalia Rodrigues, Carlos Paredes and Zeca Afonso. You can watch her Barco Negro / Black Boat interpretation below.
A Mascara/ The mask song made me think. This song is about what people say and what they actually want to say and how they mask their words.
Finally, my favorite from the album, “ A Estrada” (watch below)
