{
  "slug": "fado",
  "name": "Fado",
  "aliases": [
    "fado de lisboa",
    "fado de coimbra",
    "saudade"
  ],
  "description": "Portuguese urban song, born in the taverns and back streets of Lisbon, built on a voice, a Spanish guitar and the pear-shaped Portuguese guitarra. Its subject is saudade — longing for something that may never have existed.",
  "origin": {
    "place": "Lisbon, Portugal",
    "year": 1820
  },
  "lineage": [],
  "bpm": {
    "min": 60,
    "max": 100
  },
  "updated": "2026-08-30",
  "url": "https://waxonia.com/genre/fado/",
  "trackCount": 7,
  "curatedBy": [],
  "playlists": {},
  "tracks": [
    {
      "rank": 1,
      "trackKey": "amalia-rodrigues--barco-negro",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/amalia-rodrigues--barco-negro/",
      "title": "Barco Negro",
      "artist": "Amália Rodrigues",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/amalia-rodrigues/",
      "year": 1955,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "A woman on a beach insisting to herself that the drowned man will return. Amália is fado, and this is the performance that carried it out of Portugal without softening a syllable.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Am%C3%A1lia%20Rodrigues%20Barco%20Negro",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=2H5XMdrUTxk",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 2,
      "trackKey": "amalia-rodrigues--estranha-forma-de-vida",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/amalia-rodrigues--estranha-forma-de-vida/",
      "title": "Estranha Forma de Vida",
      "artist": "Amália Rodrigues",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/amalia-rodrigues/",
      "year": 1965,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Her own lyric, set to an old fado, about a heart that goes its own way regardless. The most economical statement of what the form is for.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Am%C3%A1lia%20Rodrigues%20Estranha%20Forma%20de%20Vida",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=VGgIlLfVEmQ",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 3,
      "trackKey": "amalia-rodrigues--lagrima",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/amalia-rodrigues--lagrima/",
      "title": "Lágrima",
      "artist": "Amália Rodrigues",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/amalia-rodrigues/",
      "year": 1983,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Late Amália, the voice worn and all the better for it. Written with Carlos Gonçalves, and the last great song she added to the standard repertoire.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Am%C3%A1lia%20Rodrigues%20L%C3%A1grima",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yxxq0ge1Fg",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 4,
      "trackKey": "alfredo-marceneiro--meu-amor-e-marinheiro",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/alfredo-marceneiro--meu-amor-e-marinheiro/",
      "title": "Meu Amor É Marinheiro",
      "artist": "Alfredo Marceneiro",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/alfredo-marceneiro/",
      "year": 1960,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The carpenter who sang, and the model every male fadista still works from. Marceneiro phrases against the guitars rather than with them, which is harder than it sounds.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Alfredo%20Marceneiro%20Meu%20Amor%20%C3%89%20Marinheiro",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=fTdzI6mNl_0",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 5,
      "trackKey": "carlos-do-carmo--coimbra",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/carlos-do-carmo--coimbra/",
      "title": "Coimbra",
      "artist": "Carlos do Carmo",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/carlos-do-carmo/",
      "year": 1977,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Lisbon's other great voice, bringing arrangements and a lightness Amália never wanted. Carlos do Carmo is why fado had somewhere to go after her.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Carlos%20do%20Carmo%20Coimbra",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=KJpKtelRxdI",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 6,
      "trackKey": "jose-afonso--balada-da-despedida",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/jose-afonso--balada-da-despedida/",
      "title": "Balada da Despedida",
      "artist": "José Afonso",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/jose-afonso/",
      "year": 1959,
      "label": null,
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "Coimbra fado — the student tradition, sung by men in capes, and quite different from Lisbon's. Afonso later wrote the song that started a revolution; the discipline is audible here first.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Jos%C3%A9%20Afonso%20Balada%20da%20Despedida",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=x-J_dp-K02A",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "rank": 7,
      "trackKey": "mariza--foi-deus",
      "trackUrl": "https://waxonia.com/track/mariza--foi-deus/",
      "title": "Foi Deus",
      "artist": "Mariza",
      "artistUrl": "https://waxonia.com/artist/mariza/",
      "year": 2001,
      "label": "World Connection",
      "isrc": null,
      "whyItMatters": "The revival, and proof it is not a museum. Mariza takes a standard everyone has heard and finds room in it, which is the only test that matters.",
      "alsoOn": [],
      "links": {
        "spotify": {
          "url": "https://open.spotify.com/search/Mariza%20Foi%20Deus",
          "exact": false
        },
        "youtubeMusic": {
          "url": "https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=NH7ZN363_xY",
          "exact": true
        }
      }
    }
  ]
}