Gisela João

“(…) Gisela João's debut album is one of the most important milestones in the history of fado this century. (…) Are we in the presence of a new fado? Yes we are."

Miguel Cadete in Expresso - Expresso

“Her singing encapsulates both life’s sorrow and life’s endless joy. Gisela João is more than just a powerful voice, she gives herself up fully to singing, with no hesitations. Fado won her over when she was still a child, as an inevitable destiny.”

Alda Rocha in Up Magazine - Up Magazine

“On the stage she has reproduced the route that brought her to fado: from North to South, from Porto to Lisbon, from the Casa da Música in Porto to the Belem Cultural Centre in Lisbon. And if she was nervous on her arrival in Lisbon she overcame her nerves: at the end of her second night with a sold-out Big Auditorium at the Belem Cultural Centre, Gisela João left in triumph. But those who say that she has arrived to take over someone else’s place should think again. Gisela João is just helping to exalt a generation where there are already many talented fado singers. The light she emanates will not cast a shadow over others because there was a vacant place waiting for her. Because there is nobody like her.”

Nuno Pacheco in Público - Público

“A White Angel in Casa da Música – Gisela João: Petite in size, a Giant in terms of her Voice”
João Arezes in Global News - Global News

“Gisela João's voice is awash in a strong Fado feeling, the kind you don't expect to hear, you can't learn, you can't teach, the kind that just exists, that is in the exact right place where a sparkle sets them on fire on those moments of abandon or genius.”

Nuno Pacheco
In Ípsilon - Ípsilon

I find myself thinking of how the world turns around. That theory that History repeats itself. Unconsciously or maybe not, I find myself thinking of the great Fado singers of the 1960s, of what it could have been if Gisela was born then and lived through those days of the song of Lisbon. On the other hand, I find myself looking at my vinyls and wanting to go listen to the early recordings of the great international singers. Could some of them have sung Fado? How would have it sounded? An artist's debut album is very likely one of her key recordings. I'm glad Gisela had hers done so respectfully, with the courage of using the great Fado singers of the 1960s as her reference point. To bring it to our days, thinking of the future, so that a great career can start on the right foot.

Camané In Gisela João (2013) - Gisela João (2003)

“Gisela João brings together the genuine, true-to-life spirit of Fado and the contemporary feeling of an urban genre of music that keeps reinventing itself.”

Pedro Dias de Almeida
In Visão - Visão

“This is clearly the best debut album from the recent Fado-singing generation. I'll go so far as to say she is the sole great Fado singer to have come up in the past few years, shaming all the other imitators who have made a career.”

Manuel Falcão
In Jornal de Negócios - Jornal de Negócios

On one hand, the best recording ever released by Valentim de Carvalho is, in my opinion, a Fado album: Amália Rodrigues' Com Que Voz. On the other hand, Fado is today the musical genre that gives Portuguese artists a safer sales market, making many of them embrace it for purely commercial reasons.
However, for a few years now, I've been thinking that, sooner or later, Fado will be shaken once again by a vital energy that will make it again relevant for a generation that thinks of it as tourist-trap music, as if it were a mere commercial phenomenon that means nothing to them.
For me, that moment arrived last Autumn, when the possibility of signing Gisela João and work with her producer Frederico Pereira lined up. I have to thank Hélder Moutinho for the opportunity – he was the one who first believed Gisela João wasn't just another singer...
All I can say is that I waited 30 years to release this album. And every day of that wait was worth it.

Francisco Vasconcelos – Valentim de Carvalho A&R In Gisela João (2013) - Gisela João (2013)

“Since Amália – and I am weighing my words – no other Fado singer has shown the emotional range Gisela João shows she has in her impressive debut album. ”

João Miguel Tavares
In Time Out - Time Out

“Amália Rodrigues was the greatest Fado singer of the 20th century.
(…) I know, I feel, with the exact same fervor, that Gisela João is the greatest Fado singer of the 21st century.
(…) That gives you an idea of what we are talking about.
(…) A miracle has happened; come and listen for yourself.”

Miguel Esteves Cardoso
In Público - Público