1. Liana

For a growing number of admirers, Liana is one of the most original fado singers of the new generation. A rare pearl to discover, and a talent with a brilliant future.

Liana exhibits an impressive range of vocal registers, with diversified tones and possesses a clear diction, without disturbing imperfections, and a word articulation that emphasises the beauty of the Portuguese idiom and makes the poem breathe and free itself.

But a good voice, without feeling or art to command it, might just be an easy and sterile acrobatics that only attracts the less caring.

More then the vocal capacities, Liana possesses a unique interpretative sensibility. She unites multiple ornaments and voice amplitudes, she says the various words and phrases with a specific feeling and inflection. In short, she subtly creates a music as if dramatised.

A natural legacy sensibility, undoubtedly, but also the result of a long learning, and, furthermore, the consequence of complete surrender.

The remarkable curriculum of Liana proves a hard and constant apprenticeship, accomplished mainly in the great school of traditional and popular fado, singing regularly to diverse audiences since the age of 9, with dedication and intense passion, that culminated with the two first prizes in the most important fado contest “Grande Noite do Fado”  94 and 96 amongst other 13 prizes in fado contests.

In 2000 she wins the RTP (national television) Song Contest, becoming part of the history of the most emblematic national contest.

Also in 2000 she is chosen to play the part of the most international portuguese fado diva Amalia Rodrigues, in a theater play about her life. The press surrenders to her performance with the best critics and she wins the Prize for Best New Actress.

It is the artistic experience obtained by the five years in the musical “Amália”, an unforgettable role that made Liana known to the larger public, however that wasn’t her real kind of singing.

The open mind towards innovation, the courage and the enthusiasm, with an attitude of liberty and independence, have been revealed on Liana´s course, inherent to her character traits and way of being.

In 2004 she releases her debut album, diverging from the forms of fado she was raised in, as a wish of emancipation and by editor’s choice. Tiago Machado was the producer and mentor of the project giving it all the electronic view, while Liana gave it the more fado style side and the choice of the poems.

As an experimental work, it pioneered the introduction of different sonorities that collide with a immaculate idea of fado. With unequal results, it presents, nevertheless, some excellent numbers, from which we point out the fabulous version of the emblematic “Estrela da Tarde” – Afternoon Star.

Soon after, as a counterpoint with the previous attitude, Liana returns to the unpretentious simplicity of fado and to herself, after several years of break in the musical, interpreting another part. She releases in 2005 the cd “Sombra” – Shadow in an author’s edition, with classic fados that her chant reinvents and personalises, and to which she confers new life. The cd is also a testimony to the authenticity of the sessions in the “fado house” (a place for tourists and locals to have dinner while listening to fado), where Liana, following the path of almost all professional fado singers, started to sing and where she remained for two years.

Another example of open mind spirit, is Liana´s ingress in the band Stockholm Lisboa Project, although not renouncing to her solo career. The cd “Sol” – Sun (the same word and meaning in Swedish and Portuguese) is released in 2007 making the fusion between traditional music of Portugal and Sweden, an apparently impossible utopia, that it’s to be noticed as a work of pure world music, surprising, crystalline and full of energy.The critics are extremely positive and the project grows in zeal, concerts and personal satisfaction of all the members.

A fundamental component of her career has been the concerts, some in Portugal, but mainly abroad. On tour since the age of 14, opening the concert for a distinct fado singer in Paris, Liana as performed in several countries, repeating regularly some stages, sinonimous of recognition from the audiences. In Australia, Canada, USA, Brasil, Spain, France, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Sweden or Germany, anyone who has seen her live, knows that it’s on stage that Liana most shines and best shares her art.

Dressed with elegance and plainness, without stereotyped gestures, Liana´s chant in concert is essentially veracity and surrender, on a balanced fado that flies in a thousand feelings and creative modulations.

Liana´s versatility allows her to interpret different genres of fado, and to design innovative and diverse concerts, with a thematic fitted to please comprehensive types of audiences.

Beyond the chant, her power of communication is another precious treasure, combining an uncommon gift of the gab and a firm empathy with the audience.

Eternally not conformed with her country, accordingly to the Portuguese blood that runs and wounds her veins, and maybe as her ancestors, an adventurer, Liana, who deeply loves Portugal, departs to London in the beginning of 2007, while progressing on studying for her degree.

Liana´s next solo disc, project that has been conceived by her from the roots, will have some compositions and poems of her own creation, as well as invited writers and composers, on a meticulous work that absorbs her with enthusiasm and love.

To Liana, a passionate for the word and the mysteries of the Portuguese soul, Fado continues to fulfil her life, as since the age of nine.

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2. Luisa Rocha

Luisa Rocha was born in Lisbon. Sings since its 6 years and showed very early aptitude and interest for Fado. Since she was young she went few times to Fado houses with their parents, and with the time she learned letters and songs of Fado. When young, made its first appearance to the public in the Grand Night of Fado in the Forum Romeu Correia, in Almada, where he highlighted among those present. Since that day, she was invited by a prestigious musical agent that hired for future projects, as "Duo Luisitania" and "Ritual Fado," directly related to the Fado.

Already by the 25 years has been invited to make part of the "Marques da Se" in Alfama. She has been 3 years in this location until she was invited to join the prestigious "Club of Fado" at the invitation of Mario Pacheco, one of the main and most important guitarists of nowadays. In recent times have been multiplied her invitations for performances in Portugal and abroad, like Brazil, France, Spain among others. At the same time, she has participated in major TV and radio, where she showed her voice.

Luísa has influences like Beatriz da Conceição, Maria da Nazaré, Amália Rodrigues and Fernando Maurício.

She is now in an important phase of her career, having recently participated in a musical project entitled "Fadário" with many of the most important voices of the new generation of Fado. At the same time she is recording her first solo album, produced by Custódio Castelo and with editing planned for end of this year.

Luisa is increasingly making their mark in the current national song.

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3. Luiz Goês

Do tempo do disco gravado em espiras que rodavam 78 rotações por minuto até aos dias de hoje, Luiz Góes é, sem dúvida, um dos mais representativos intérpretes da canção de Coimbra.
A representatividade recolhe-a não só na herança tradicional coimbrã, mas, também, nos géneros que foi capaz de interpretar e aos quais conferiu um cunho muito particular, especialmente apreciado e dificilmente imitável. Até a sua capacidade de adaptação aos diferentes veículos de media, em Portugal e em numerosos países, conferiram a Luiz Góes uma dimensão que ultrapassa, em muito, as margens do Mondego.
O seu célebre disco Coimbra Quintet, gravado em Madrid para a Philips, conheceu pelo menos 15 edições, todas com capas diferentes e é, segundo os especialistas, o disco de fados e guitarradas de Coimbra mais vendido de sempre.
Luiz Fernando de Sousa Pires de Góes nasceu na cidade de Coimbra em 1933 e licenciou-se em medicina 25 anos depois. É, ainda hoje, um renomado médico estomatologista, profissão com a qual intercala a sua extensa e múltipla actividade de autor e intérprete de fados e baladas da cidade do Mondego.
As origens familiares em muito contribuíram para a formação artística de Luiz Góes. De facto, o cantor cedo se iniciou nas lides do fado por influência do tio paterno, Armando Góes, contemporâneo de Edmundo Bettencourt, António Menano, Lucas Junot, Paradela de Oliveira, Almeida d'Eça e Artur Paredes.
"Toda a minha família, sobretudo da parte do meu pai, se tinha dedicado mais ou menos ao canto e à execução de instrumentos de corda: o pai tocava viola, a mãe piano e o tio foi um dos nossos mais importantes cantores e compositores dos anos 20", constata Luiz Góes.
Afonso de Sousa, um guitarrista e compositor que acompanhou frequentes vezes Artur Paredes, disse sobre o jovem e promissor Luiz Góes, comparando-o a Edmundo Bettencourt: "Luiz Góes viria a revelar-se num dos mais brilhantes cantores que passaram por Coimbra, mas cujo fogo, alimentado que fosse para fora do ambiente tão propício à inspiração e à difusão, como o do Mondego, não lograria a glória a que se guindou. Num possível confronto com Edmundo Bettencourt - a quem aliás tanto admira - Luiz Góes não sairia diminuído".
Com apenas 14 anos de idade, Góes já era tido na conta de um "menino prodígio", com honras de ser convidado e acompanhado por Artur Paredes, Afonso de Sousa e mesmo Francisco Menano, irmão mais velho de António Menano. Estas actuações precoces de Góes decorreram em festas e reuniões de convívio de antigos estudantes da velha academia coimbrã. Mas a ideia de um Luiz Góes apenas ligado ao fado de Coimbra não resiste ao confronto nem com os números nem com os temas que o celebrizaram.
De facto, Góes é autor de 25 fados e de 18 baladas, de que se destacam Fado da Despedida, Toada Beira, Balada da Distância, Canção do Regresso, Homem Só, meu Irmão, Romagem à Lapa, É Preciso Acreditar, entre muitos outros.
Fado, toada, balada, canção. Luiz Góes, atravessou uniformemente os diferentes géneros da canção de Coimbra com um fio condutor: a sua voz inconfundível de barítono ao serviço de um conjunto de temas criteriosamente escolhidos ou criados.
Góes foi colega de José Afonso e de António Portugal no liceu D. João III, de Coimbra, e com eles chegou a integrar o conjunto de António Brojo, um artista de décadas anteriores que continuava a ser uma referência incontornável para as gerações mais novas e que pensavam a canção de Coimbra de uma forma mais evoluída.
No 7° ano do Liceu, Luiz Góes canta a sua primeira canção, Feiticeira, da autoria de Angelo de Araújo. Não mais pararia. Integra o Orfeão Académico, onde foi solista, a Tuna e o Teatro dos Estudantes da Universidade de Coimbra.
Após o serviço militar cumprido como alferes-médico na Guiné, Góes reinicia a sua carreira, entretanto já a viver em Lisboa, onde desempenhava a sua actividade clínica. E é nesta segunda fase da sua obra que vai ter a colaboração, embora sob pseudónimo, do guitarrista Carlos Paredes, mas, também, de João Bagão, António Andias, Aires de Aguiar e Jorge Tuna, enquanto que, à viola, recebeu os contributos de Fernando Alvim, Fernando Neto e Durval Moreirinhas. Tendo gravado pela primeira vez em 1953, Luiz Góes apresenta um enorme conjunto de registos discográficos que o tornam num dos mais editados e conhecidos artistas de Coimbra.
Além de uma primeira participação televisiva em 1955, na televisão Paulista, do Brasil, Góes apresentou-se nas televisões de países como Espanha, França, Suécia, Áustria, Estados Unidos e África do Sul.

PRINCIPAIS ÊXITOS:

Além dos já referidos: Coimbra de Ontem e de Hoje, Canções do Mar e da Vida, Canções do Amor e de Esperança, Canções para Quase Todos.

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