Joana Almeida

Joana Almeida is one of the most recent revelations of fado. She is young, but she also is the living proof that there is no age to interpret the emotion of a poem and to live fado in its fullness, entirely.

She was born and raised in Felgueiras. Fado was always present, even though she initially did not imagine that this would be her life. Her father played an important role in her discovery. From a very young age, Joana Almeida remembers hearing her father sing and play fados, albeit in an amateur way. Certainly, something began to germinate within her, little by little, even without full awareness of the path she was going to take.

At the age of 12 she entered the Conservatory to learn to play the piano. Shyness led her to sing only by herself, at home. But around 17 years old something changed. She began to sing unabashedly, exploring the most diverse musical genres: pop songs; the church choir; even a metal band. And it was at that same age that she fell in love with fado,that song she heard her father sing, since she was a child.

If today when we hear Joana Almeida, we feel that she interprets the poems with a unique virtue, it is not surprising that it was precisely the poems that aroused her interest in fado.

Once this passion for fado ignited, it never stopped. In fact, it was still at the age of 17 that Joana Almeida was the winner of the 2nd National Fado Grand Prix of RTP 1. And suddenly everything changed. This victory led to the start of invitations to sing in the fado houses in Lisbon and, in that same year, she moved to the capital, where she went to study Business Management. And despite the big change, she quickly falls in love with the city as well.

Since then, she has visited many important Lisbon fado restaurants, such as Fado Ao Carmo, Luso, Maria da Mouraria, Parreirinha de Alfama, Mesa de Frades, Tasca do Chico, Mascote da Atalaia and Páteo de Alfama.

Along her journey, she crossed paths with important names of fado. Today Ana Sofia Varela is her godmother of fado and guitarists Samuel Cabral and Pedro Castro were also very important.

Soon her talent was revealed, which took her to other stages besides the fado houses. In 2016 and 2017 she took the stage at the Caixa Alfama and Caixa Ribeira festivals, respectively. Also in 2017 she performed at Casa da Música, and a year later at the Centro Cultural de Belém, in a concert that was particularly important for her.

She was also part of the Tours with Fado of the Fado Museum, where she joined the cast that paid tribute to the fado singer Maria Severa, in addition to being invited to participate in the album JazzInFado, a disc that unites the best fado songs and their best performers a some of the most important musicians of Latin jazz, an idea of ​​the Cuban musician and producer Óscar Gomez. Carlos do Carmo, António Zambujo, Marco Rodrigues, Ana Bacalhau, Carminho or Hélder Moutinho were some of the names that Joana Almeida joined on this album.

On February 14, 2020, she released her long-awaited debut album, entitled Deslumbramento, with production by Tiago Machado.

Source:

Universal Music