Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
(...) Raquel waited and did well. Her first album reveals a maturity in her voice that didn’t exist when she appeared as a young fado talent (...).
(...) The option for a album of originals is also the right choice because it allows the “fadista” to apply what she has learned from a more characteristic fado without the involuntary mediatic temptation (she is one of the rare feminine voices that, instead of choosing Amalia as a paradigm, she prefers Lucília do Carmo or Beatriz da Conceição).
- In Y Publico por Nuno Pacheco
(...) She is only 21 years old but she sings fado as if she knew all of its subtleties (...) A debut album that places her (by own right) in the gallery of the new generation of fadistas(...), - In Correio da Manhã
(...) To listen to her, is in fact, to disappear into a world and wake up in the middle of unknown emotions, stop breathing, absorb every word so that her echo last eternally in and intense imaginary. They call her the new Severa through out the whole of Lisbon (...)
(...) She sings with the maturity of someone who was never a child. Her fado is the mirror of her soul. It touches everyone. Raquel has the gift of Lisboa’s new Severa(...)
- In Actual – Jornal Expresso by Alexandra Carita
Discography
Raquel Tavares
Photos
Feeling a bit camera shy
Bio
If fado means destiny; then let us talk about Raquel Tavares.
One can feel it in the voice, in the attitude, in the expression and above all in the courage of someone that can assume herself as a “Fadista”. This can’t all happen by chance, not even due to the fact that there are talks of an artist with a huge talent to act. No great actress could perform such a role so well...
In her attitude, one can feel the livelihood and fantastic absorption of this art that is typical of whom is born and bred in such surroundings. In the essence of her singing, the posture is noticeable, the rule and influence with a natural feel, of a series of great builders of this way of life we call “Fado”.
The musical intuition, the weight and rhythm of the words, the restrain and authenticity in the interpretation, are felt in themes like “Quando Acordas” ... its true not to know why spring is found in the freshness of a flower... or the influence of other great interpreters like in “Olhos Garotos” paying homage to two of one of the finest songwriters of Fado’s history (Jaime Santos e João Linhares Barbosa).
To be an interpreter you need to know much more than just singing, place your voice and tune the notes in a melody; it is important to create; pick poetry and synchronise it with the suggested song. A great interpreter is also a great song writer, because he has the talent to manage the context of the voice, the melody, and the words to transform it all into a message. A message that must reach everyone and that when they close their eyes they can see and believe in the several descriptions present such as in “Fado Lisboeta” ... I hear guitars vibrating and voices singing, in a dark street. Lights are dimming, announcing that the day has come. I silently close the window, in the alley whispers of caring; the calm and fresh morning arrives; and the dark night is only in my soul...
Besides versatility, Raquel Tavares has the talent to recreate what could be a “Fado Balada” or a “Fado Canção”, into a great fado of our time, in themes like “Noite”, “Querer Cantar”, “Por Momentos” or “Trazes pedaços de mim”. Sharing her carismatic interpretation to them.
Surrounding an artist there is a “magnet” that attracts creation to everything around her, since the album to the show that created itself, in the inspiration of the main character and also the inspiring “muse” of this project. This is how it is meant to be. No other theme could be mentioned, except the “História de uma Cantadeira”. The story of Raquel Tavares.
Inevitably “O seu destino”, that something that she could never not be.
Born in Lisbon, in the 11th of January of 1985, came from a family with connections to the musical panorama of the Lisbon song. Since very young she was present at the “cantos” e “recantos” that some may call the “ghettos” or “tertúlias do fado”.
Studying took her to other places, undertaking a normal course in terms of studying and matureness, until the moment in which “her” destiny made her decide between her life and her career.
She returned to the usual Fado places, now at the age of 18. She went through the Fado houses of “Café Luso”, “Sr. Vinho”, “Arcadas do Faia”, “Adega Mesquita”, “Adega Machado” and at last integrates the cast of “Casa de Linhares”.
She signed up with MoviePlay Portugal (label company) and with HM Musica (Management), records her first album and creates her show, always surrounding a character that is based in a more artistic form that her reality.
If in some situations a art director or a writer may create a show in his imagination and then choose an artist to play the main role, in this case it’s the artist himself that inspires everyone that surrounds her to create, all she is in real life.
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