Dona Rosa (PT)

Saturday 2 November 2024
Støperiet Scene, Tønsberg, Norway
Tickets

Dona Rosa embodies the true longing of the soul for authenticity, rooted in a tradition where Fado is its most relevant and famous symbol. Her voice becomes the ideal instrument for the expression of this longing, and as she sings we feel that it is indeed possible to stretch ourselves beyond the boundaries of our narrow, logical minds.

The miraculous story of the blind singer Dona Rosa of Lisbon, who was born into a poor family in 1957. She went blind at four and coming of age, she had to leave her family for good. She decided to stay in Lisbon and joined other blind homeless people. She sold magazines, lottery tickets and begged for a living. One day somebody suggested she use her lovely voice, and from then on Dona Rosa became inseparable from the streets of Lisbon.  

Already in the 70s, she turned up in video documentaries as a street singer, accompanying herself only with a triangle in the alleys of Lisbon, where she had long been a local heroine. Then in 1999, André Heller was captivated by her and invited her to appear in the Voices of God TV production. This was followed by her debut recording Historias da Rua in 2000. Two further CDs followed in 2003 Segredos and Alma Livre in 2007.

Having achieved notoriety through her appearance in Andre Heller’s music documentary Voices of God, Dona Rosa, the blind street singer known to millions for over 20 years from the Rua Augusta in Lisbon, has since conquered concert stages of the world from Europe to Taipei and Los Angeles.

“Her chosen songs, though mostly modern, have the haunted, incantatory feel of ancient ballads, rendered in a voice that is at once silvery clear and slightly throaty. Her apparently artless delivery gets to the emotional truth of this material in a way more sophisticated performers might struggle to achieve for years.” - Daily Telegraph