Celeste Rodrigues

Celeste Rodrigues was born and lived in Fundão until she was 5. She recalls her childhood, similar to the one of so many other children except for the fact that she was a tomboy, although quite timid and shy. She moves to Alcântara, Lisbon, when she was 5. Some years later she decides to quit school and gets a job at a pastry factory.

The producer José Miguel encourages her to sing and she becomes a professional in 1945 and premieres at “Casablanca”. Later she joins a theatre company and leaves for Brazil – with her sister Amália Rodrigues – to play in the operetta "Rosa Cantadeira" and in "Boa Nova", where she stays for one year. Throughout her career, Celeste Rodrigues will receive several invitations to participate in theater plays, but she always refuses. Only later, in 1992, did she accept the invitation to join the cast of the film "Xavier", by Manuel Mozos. From there, other feature films followed: in 2018, she participated in "Cabaret Maxime", by Bruno de Almeida and, finally, in "Alfama em Si", directed by her grandson, director Diogo Varela Silva. After this stay in Brazil, Celeste Rodrigues returns to Portugal and works at "Café Latino", "Marialvas", and "Urca" in Feira Popular, venues that would determine her destiny. Later she leaves "Luso" for "Adega Mesquita" where she works for 4 years until going to "Tipóia" and "Adega Machado". She travels to Brazil to sing in radio and TV shows, and has great success working at Tony de Matos’ restaurant "Fado".

During the 1950s Celeste Rodrigues was already a reference within the fado universe and had toured extensively worldwide: “Brazil, Spain, Belgium Congo, and English Africa, (…) Angola and Mozambique, and Portuguese islands.” according to an interview given to the newspaper “A Voz de Portugal” (1956).

Continuing to base her professional career on performances at fado houses in Lisbon, Celeste Rodrigues joined the cast of Parreirinha de Alfama in the early 1960s, and remained there for over 10 years, when João Ferreira-Rosa invited her for the cast of Taverna do Embuçado, where he performs for 25 years. Later, she will perform at Bacalhau de Molho and Casa de Linhares. The fado singer achieves a successful career, with performances in typical houses, on national and international radio and television programs. At the height of her artistic career, Celeste Rodrigues was also invited to record for the BBC program "Panorama", in London, at the invitation of Richard Dimbleby and for The Ed Sullivan Show, on the american channel CBS. And, during all these years of intense activity, she had the opportunity to visit some of the biggest cities in the world.

For family reasons she leaves for Washington, United States, where she lives with her daughters and grandchildren. But her relationship with fado still lingers and she takes every opportunity to sing at fado houses, interpreting live her repertoire, which includes gold or platinum greatest hits records that are now, after all these decades, classics of this way of singing. From her repertoire we point out "Lenda das Algas" by Laerte Neves, "Saudade vai-te embora" by Júlio de Sousa, and " Meu xaile", lyrics by Varela Silva.

Despite many comparisons to her sister Amália Rodrigues, Celeste Rodrigues possesses a unique authenticity that makes her stand out as a great fado singer. Talking about the friendship and close relationship she lived with her sister she stated: "I always felt despise for the artistic life and never granted it much importance. I sing for the love of fado itself and I have never promoted any kind of stardom. It is dangerous. The burden of fame stole my sister’s right to live her own life.

In 2005 Ricardo Pais, head of Teatro Nacional São João, dares her to join the show "Cabelo Branco é saudade" with three other major fado voices: Argentina Santos, Alcindo de Carvalho, and Ricardo Ribeiro. This show toured several domestic and international stages.

One of her career highlights was the release in the Netherlands - in 2007 - of the “Fado Celeste” album with both traditional and new fados with lyrics by contemporary authors.

In October 2007, the APAF held a celebration ceremony at the Auditório do Museu do Fado, in recognition of her “beautiful voice, interpreting skills, and long and consistent career.”

More recently, one of the highlights of her career is the edition of the album “Fado Celeste”, published in 2007 in the Netherlands, which brings together traditional and unpublished fados with lyrics by contemporary authors, such as Helder Moutinho and Tiago Torres da Silva. That same year, in October, a tribute to the fado singer took place in the auditorium of the Fado Museum, an initiative of the "Associação Portuguesa dos Amigos do Fado", in recognition of the “beautiful voice, interpretive capacity and the regularity of a career.” (statements by Julieta Estrela de Castro, APAF president to the Lusa agency).

In 2010, the documentary about her life, entitled "Fado Celeste", premiered by his grandson Diogo Varela Silva. In 2015 as a tribute to her 70 years of career, the Herat Beat section of the Doclisboa festival, opens with a reassembly of that same documentary, entitled only, "Celeste".

In 2012, she was awarded the Commandation of the Order of Infante D. Henrique by the President of the Republic.

After 80, Celeste discovered a taste for painting. In July 2017, she was challenged by Mozambican painter Roberto Chichorro, a friend of hers, to make an exhibition in her own name, entitled "Cores do Fado".

Celeste sang until the end. The last concerts, on April 7, 2018 and May 11 of the same year, filled, respectively, the Town Hall, in New York and the Teatro Tivoli, in Lisbon.

Celeste Rodrigues passed away on August 1, 2018 and, since then, many tributes have followed. On March 21, 2019, at the CCB, several fado singers paid tribute to her in a concert entitled "Fado Celeste", directed by Diogo Varela Silva and, in 2023, the Fado Museum inaugurates a temporary exhibition, commemorating the centenary of her birth . As part of the exhibition, two tracks are also released - "Se alguém me procurar" and "A Noite do meu bem" - re-recorded by Celeste at the age of 95.

Source:

“Guitarra de Portugal”, September 15, 1946;

“The Voice of Portugal”, October 1, 1956;

"Álbum da Canção", no. 51, May 1, 1967;

“Unique”, April 14, 2006;

“Cabelo branco é saudade” (2005), show program, Porto, National Theater of São João;

https://www.ccb.pt/Default/pt/Programacao/Musica?a=1426