Fado neo - cristina branco & group "eva"

OFFBEAT SERIES PRESENTS IN 2022
19.06.2022
19.15h Martinskirche Basel

Fado Nuevo
Cristina Branco - "Eva" (Lisboa)
Cristina Branco - voice
Bernardo Couto - Portuguese guitar
Bernardo Moreira - doublebass
Luís Figueiredo - piano and keys

Cristina Branco (* 1972 in Almeirim, Ribatejo) is one of the most important Portuguese fado singers. Cristina Branco does not come from the unbroken tradition of Fado. According to her own account, she was brought to fado by records of Amália Rodrigues, which her grandfather gave her for her 18th birthday. Originally she wanted to become a journalist. Musically, she was more interested in the work of singers like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Janis Joplin and Joni Mitchell. The discovery of fado, under the impression that Amália's voice had left on her, then launched her career as a singer. After a brief appearance on a Portuguese television program, she was invited to the Netherlands, where she gave her first public concert in 1996 at Zaal 1 in Amsterdam. The recordings of her performance there on April 25-27, 1997, on the occasion of the 23rd anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, are self-published as a CD in 1998. Subsequently, the interest in Cristina Branco increased, also in the context of a general reawakening of interest in Fado. She undertook concert tours throughout Europe and North America and is today one of the great interpreters of Fado de Lisboa.

The world of the Portuguese fadista Cristina Branco seemed rosy, she recorded album after album for Universal, the world music community was at her feet - a dazzling figure with a bell-bright voice who fulfilled all expectations. But there was more to the woman than fadoromanticism, concert robes and a diva image. 2006 was the birth year of her alter ego "EVA". Eva saw the light of day because Cristina was struggling with the questionof all questions. "What is freedom?" All the desires, thoughts, dreams were projected into EVA and the projection helped the artist to break away from the perfectionism of the music industry and go her own way. With the first two albums "Menina" (o-tone/Edel) and "Branco" (o-tone/Edel), she said goodbye to the major label, the musical expectations of Central European lovers of Portugal, exaggerated Photoshop from 2016 after a long struggle. She had all the songs on the albums, planned as a trilogy, written and composed by lusophone artists*. Indie, pop, punk, rap, jazz musicians, a literature Nobel Prize winner, stars and starlets: The range of people she has brought on board alone is testament to immense courage to let go.

The potpourri is held together by her and her trio, consisting of Portuguese guitar, piano and double bass, which has accompanied her ever since. Cristina Branco, Bernardo Couto, Luís Figueiredo and Bernardo Moreira have grown close together on their common path:
Much like EVA, the gentlemen at Branco's side were given more leeway. Figueiredo is responsible for several of their common songs, all songs are arranged together in the rehearsal room. Electronic and percussive elements, polyphonic background vocals, the fun of improvisation of the jazz musicians gained space and made the music more unique, while the art figure Cristina Branco faded into the background. EVA conquered her space - in the process the protagonist gained more and more integrity.The songs on the album of the same name, which concludes the trilogy, consequently deal with the themes, Who am I, Who do I want to be. How can I be free. Eva is brought to life, expectations are stripped away. The inner is turned inside out, vulnerability is allowed in the process - integrity sometimes hurts. But it is first and foremost liberating and you can hear all this in Cristina Branco, alias EVA.

Start: 19:15

Age limit: none

Wheelchair Seating: Wheelchair users need a regular ticket in the stalls, the venue is wheelchair accessible.

More info:
www.offbeat-concert.ch
[jhub)


Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.