Lusophone Music

Fado is often spoken of as the Portuguese music, in the singular. Seen on the scale of the Portuguese-speaking world, though, fado is rather one branch of a family — that of the urban songs born, on both sides of the Atlantic, of the meeting between European and African roots, and sharing one thing in common: they carry the language (and its creoles) in the voice itself. Samba, morna, kizomba and marrabenta are the other great branches of that family.

A family resemblance

For all the distances between them, these genres share a single mould. Nearly all are urban and mixed, taking shape between the 19th and the mid-20th century in port cities — Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro, Mindelo, Luanda, Lourenço Marques. Nearly all weave European harmony and string instruments together with African rhythm and sensibility. And nearly all cultivate one central feeling of longing: Portuguese saudade [sɐwˈðaðɨ] has sisters in Cape Verdean sodade and in the melancholy of the morna.

Fado: the Lisbon branch

Urban fado took shape in Lisbon in the first half of the 19th century, in the working-class quarters of Alfama and Mouraria, sung solo over the guitarra portuguesa and the viola. It later acquired a learned pole in Coimbra. The voice of Amália Rodrigues (1920–1999) carried it abroad, and in 2011 UNESCO inscribed it on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It is the member of the family that serves here as a starting point — not as a yardstick.

Samba: Rio and the invention of modern Brazil

In Brazil, samba consolidated in Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century, heir to the lundu, the maxixe and the Afro-Bahian batuque. Pelo Telefone (1917), registered by Donga, is traditionally cited as the first recorded samba. From the backyard circle to the Carnival avenue, it became the sound through which the country imagines itself.

The word itself ties the genre to Africa: samba most likely goes back to Kimbundu semba, the umbigada — the touching of navels that marked certain Bantu circle dances.

Morna and coladeira: the soul of Cape Verde

In Cape Verde, the morna is the national genre par excellence: slow, melancholy, almost always sung in Cape Verdean Creole, with guitar, cavaquinho and violin. The poet Eugénio Tavares gave it major lyrics in the early 20th century, and B.Léza (Francisco Xavier da Cruz) enriched its harmony. The voice of Cesária Évora (1941–2011), the barefoot diva, took it to the world; in 2019 UNESCO recognised the morna as intangible heritage. Alongside it runs the coladeira, faster and more ironic.

Semba, kizomba and marrabenta: Atlantic Africa

In Angola, semba — fast, danced, urban — was the soundtrack of Luanda around independence. From its matrix, already in the 1980s and under the influence of Caribbean zouk, came kizomba: slower and more sensual, sung in Portuguese and Kimbundu, today a partner dance that has spread far beyond the Lusophone world.

In Mozambique, marrabenta formed in Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) from the 1930s–1950s, crossing local dances with European ballroom song. The name comes from Portuguese rebentar, “to snap” — said to refer to the strings that snapped on the musicians’ home-made guitars.

Genre	Origin	Period	Main language
Fado	Lisbon (Portugal)	19th c.	Portuguese
Samba	Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)	early 20th c.	Portuguese
Morna	Mindelo / Boa Vista (Cape Verde)	19th–20th c.	Cape Verdean Creole
Semba / Kizomba	Luanda (Angola)	20th c.	Portuguese & Kimbundu
Marrabenta	Maputo (Mozambique)	20th c.	Portuguese & Bantu languages

The language that is sung

For a history of the language, this family matters because it is one of its greatest living vehicles. The morna made Cape Verdean Creole a recognised language of art; kizomba carries Portuguese onto dance floors from Lisbon to Tokyo; samba and marrabenta blend, in a single line, Portuguese vocabulary and African substrate. To sing in these genres is, in large measure, to keep the language — and its creoles — in circulation.