Teresa Salgueiro - The Siren of Lisbon

Teresa Salgueiro, the siren who once enchanted Lisbon through the alleys of Alfama and Barrio Alto, can still seduce and captivate. Even outside Madredeus. Her second life began in 2005 with her solo debut, “Obrigado”, and truly took off two years later, when she left the band she had fronted for twenty years. We meet her on the occasion of her new tour, “O Horizonte… e a Memória”. We discover that she speaks enviable Italian and hasn’t lost an ounce of that delightful sweetness that made the whole world fall in love with her in the Nineties, with her angelic performances set against a nocturnal, enchanted Lisbon, lulled by the waters of the Ocean and the secrets of its ancient history. Today, however, her gaze is turned more than ever toward the present.

Teresa, what are you bringing to your new concerts?

Mostly, I’m bringing the music of my two solo works. The tour takes its cue from the title of my second album as a singer-songwriter, “O Horizonte”. I take the stage with Rui Lobato (drums, percussion, guitar), José Peixoto (guitar), Oscar Torres (double bass), Carisa Marcelino (accordion). With them I perform my repertoire, both as a solo artist and with Madredeus, along with new arrangements of songs by classic Portuguese songwriters such as Fausto Bordalo Dias, Zeca Afonso, Carlos Paredes. We try to offer a synthesis of the deepest roots of our music.

Your latest album, “O Horizonte”, also hides a message of hope in these dark years.

It’s a look toward that distant line that pushes us to set off on the path toward our dreams. Mine, for instance, was to manage to create an entirely original repertoire, both in the music and in the words. The message is to keep hope and faith that it’s possible to believe and fight so that the horizon stays there to make us dream and act.

What did your long experience with Madredeus mean to you?

Those were twenty years of my life: by the time I left the group I had spent more time with them than in my entire previous life, since I had started at 17. Madredeus will always remain a part of me, I devoted myself entirely to singing those songs, an immense journey around the world, with original music in Portuguese. It was also a school: it helped me understand and learn a great many things, and also to realize what I didn’t like and didn’t want to do. A very intense story for me and for each member of the group: I stayed for 20 years, but many others lasted much less time — today only the group’s musical director, Pedro Ayres Magalhães, remains.

Why did you decide to leave the group?

In 2007, we had decided to take a sabbatical year, also because the members of the group were devoting themselves to parallel musical projects. I, for instance, released the album “Io e te” in Brazil, which revisited the repertoire of Brazilian popular music. Then I took part with the Lusitania Ensemble in the show “La Serena”, which also gave rise to the album of the same name. Finally, I was involved in the album “Silence, Night And Dreams”, by Polish composer Zbigniew Preisner. There was some uncertainty about Madredeus’s future schedule, and I had been presented with a very rigid work plan, take it or leave it. That’s when I understood it was the right moment to leave the group to which I had given everything for twenty years.

Did you already have an idea of what you wanted to do?

I knew I had to keep following my own idea of music. Luckily I had stayed in touch with some musicians who shared my passions, some of whom are still with me today. But I was still busy with various collaborations, including in Italy, where I worked with Angelo Branduardi and where I took part in the project “Canti naviganti” with the Solis String Quartet, halfway between Neapolitan and Portuguese song. I realized I could create my own musical concept, until 2011, when I released my first album as a songwriter, “O Mistério”.

In Italy you made everyone fall in love with you through your performances in Wim Wenders’s “Lisbon Story”. What did that film mean to you and to your city?

Being part of "Lisbon Story" was a dream. Wim Wenders is a master, and those days on set will always be unforgettable. The film portrayed an ancient, magical Lisbon that no longer exists today, and perhaps didn't even exist back then, to the point that in Portugal some accused him of not having painted a realistic portrait of the city. But "Lisbon Story" was chasing a different idea, a very dreamlike one, not necessarily faithful to reality, and I loved that about it.

It was still great publicity for Lisbon, though...

Yes, the film certainly helped promote the city, which that year, 1994, was European Capital of Culture. It was important for our band too, since that same year we were about to release our third album, "O Espírito da Paz", and were getting ready to head out on a world tour. Wenders' offer was an extraordinary opportunity for us, so much so that during that same session we managed to record other material as well, which ended up on a second Madredeus record, "Ainda".

Speaking of Portuguese music, one can't avoid mentioning fado, a timeless and universal genre. What do you think is the secret behind its worldwide success?

Fado is universal above all thanks to the extraordinary person and artist that Amália Rodrigues was. Sixty years of a unique career. An artist who transformed the very way music is understood in Portugal: in our history, there's a before and an after Amália. When she left this world, a great void remained, and new generations turned to this kind of music. It's a style built on great passion, but also on sadness and melancholy. Fado means "fate", and it's often synonymous with lamenting stories that ended bitterly, but it can also be joyful, cheerful music, a light-hearted commentary on everyday life, on the life of a people. Now it's had a worldwide boom, but my country hasn't always loved it the way it has in these recent years, when it's become a universal language, one that can even be reinterpreted with different instruments and approaches.

Politics plays a part in that too, right?

Of course. For example, when we started out with Madredeus, in the late Eighties, almost 15 years had passed since the Carnation Revolution (1974), which freed us from a regime that had kept us locked within our borders for 40 years. And that regime had used every national symbol, including fado, to promote its propaganda. So there was a backlash, nobody wanted anything to do with fado anymore, because it was identified with that period. Then, luckily, things changed. Personally, though, I've never had much to do with that musical tradition, either as a solo artist or with Madredeus.

Curiously, though, some accounts report that during your early performances in the clubs of Barrio Alto you actually used to sing fado...

No, actually it wasn't that kind of music. They were classic Portuguese songs, for instance from two records my parents had at home: "Cantigas do Maio" by José Afonso, one of the greatest Portuguese songwriters as well as a staunch enemy of the regime, and then "O Disco Do Busto", an album made by Amália Rodrigues with Alain Oulman, a wonderful composer who set the best national poets to music, while still stepping outside the boundaries of fado. Those were exciting years, in any case: that nocturnal Lisbon, so closed-off and mysterious, still bore the marks of the regime's dark period, but at the same time it was full of life and eager for rebirth.

And it was thanks to those very performances that you ended up joining Madredeus...

Yes, they were impressed and invited me to join a band that was just forming and that, only some time later, started calling itself Madredeus (a contraction of Madre de Deus, the convent - now a theatre - where the first tracks were recorded, ed.).

Is it blasphemous to say that today Portugal's national symbol is actually a footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo?

I don't follow football much, except for the Portuguese national team's matches, but yes, he really is a symbol for us. We're all proud of what he does. He's a champion, but also an example of humility and seriousness, despite appearances. You'll enjoy having him in Italian football.

And what's Teresa Salgueiro's relationship with Italy like? It seems like a very good one, judging by how well you speak our language. Speaking of which: how did you learn it so well?

Thank you! I worked in Italy with Madredeus, and besides, Italian is a language I love very much. I'm always happy to come play concerts here, there's so much warmth and affection. I also love Italian musicians, like Ennio Morricone, Mina, Angelo Branduardi, Franco Battiato and Avion Travel. As for the current scene, though, I know very little about it.

We even saw you alongside Stadio at Sanremo…

Yes, in 2007, it was an incredible experience. I found myself on the stage of the Festival that I used to watch on TV as a child: Sanremo has always been very popular in Portugal!

(September 20, 2018)

(Extended version of an interview published in the newspaper Leggo)

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