The new album from Portuguese fado singer Carminho, Portuguesa, was released in the US on CD and vinyl on August 18, 2023; the self-produced record was released to critical acclaim earlier in the year. 

The sixth album of Carminho’s career, Portuguesa features fourteen compositions, including several of her own songs as well as those of other writers, including traditional fado songs, through which she explores various combinations within the canons, reimagining the form.

The artist says of her album: “The album Portuguesa began to take shape in 2019 and its genesis has the same basis as all the previous ones: A permanent fascination with fado, for its inexhaustible paths and possibilities within the same matrix, and recognizing in it the most natural language to express myself. For me, fado is a language more than a message, a path more than a destination.

She continues, “But if on the previous album I explored the most personal and intuitive experience I had with my family, listening to my mother sing, in fado houses, meeting and learning from the best interpreters, on this last one I dedicated myself to researching the composition and poetry, daring to compose original traditional fados and to delve into technical and historical issues of building a repertoire.”