Amalia Rodrigues

    This blog post is about the incredible Fado singer, Amalia Rodrigues. This week we were able to visit her house and I was able to learn a lot of fun facts about her from our tour guide. One of my favorite facts I learned about her is that she loved perfume! I am addicted to perfume so this really resonated with me. I think it is cool that I was able to find a similarity with her. Amalia became someone I strive to be. From the stories our guide told us, I can tell that she was a very kind woman. Apparently, you could knock on her door, say you loved her and she would invite you up! She would host people all night and wanted people to feel welcome. One more thing that I loved learning about her was that she grew up fairly poor. She wasn’t able to move into her beautiful home until she was 36. Knowing this about her can serve as an inspiration to others. She worked hard to get where she did, which is very admirable. 

    Amalia  is known as the queen of fado and the lady of Portugal. In order to get names like these she had to have been pretty influential. I remember in the prep class Dr. Hegstrom said that she was the person to make fado popular worldwide. In my opinion I think This is a big contribution because it allows others to appreciate this form of art that they may not have ever known about if it weren't for her. Because of her big influence she became the first woman to be buried in Lisbon's National Pantheon. Professor M. McFarland told us that another thing her popularity allowed her to do was publish/sing a poet's work. This was an important contribution because at the time these poets were being silenced because of the political leadership in Portugal. Even though Amalia knew publishing this work would cause a scandal, she did it anyway. 

    I think Amalia has been commemorated well. Her home is open to the public which I think is a great way for people to learn more about her. In my opinion the best way to be commemorated is to have a way for people to remember you and continue to learn about her. Her house provides this perfectly. Amalia also has a garden named after her. We were able to visit this “garden” and I think she would have liked it. It is a beautiful piece of land that looks over the city of Lisbon. I think the fact that it is one of the highest points in Lisbon serves as a great sign of respect.

Comments

  1. EleaseMay 27, 2024 at 12:35 PM

    I love this blog post Molly! She definitely faced some struggles with how she wasn't educated how we are educated now. This could have hampered her however she became a huge sensation throughout the entire world. This is something that is less of an issue today.

    Learning about Amalia has helped me to understand the importance of Fado and how integral it is too Portugal.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Meg KiehlJune 2, 2024 at 4:20 AM

    Molly, I like how you highlighted Amalia Rodrigues’s poor upbringing and how she couldn’t move into that house until she was 36, after years of hard work and fame. Highlighting these difficulties she had makes me appreciate all that she accomplished even more.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hannah BryanJune 9, 2024 at 3:21 PM

    Hi Molly! I'm just going to add a comment to your post.

    Amalia brought Fado to the forefront of Portuguese music, and made Fado known internationally as the main music of portugal. That would be like if folk music became known around the world as the main music of the United States because taylor swift had only ever sung folk music. She really did make a huge difference in how Portugal is seen around the world and it totally makes sense that politicians treated her as an important person to be taken seriously.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Palais Garnier

Image
     Today I had the privilege of visiting Palais Garnier, an opera house in Paris. It was beautiful. The exterior and interior were spectacular. One of the first things I noticed was the scale of the building. It was huge compared to me. I wish I could have seen what it looked like without the scaffolding on it. I understand it is there to protect it, but it would have been cool to see it. The interior of the building gave me baroque vibes. It was ornate, grand, and highly decorative. There were many different colors used throughout the interior of the building. Different rooms seemed to have different color pallets. It made it so you wanted to go in all the rooms because you didn’t know what you were about to walk into. My favorite room was the one that had amazing paintings covering the ceilings and the royal chandeliers everywhere. I will attach a photo of this room!      In addition to this being a stunning building, it is historically and culturally important. Napoleon ordered th
Read more

Agnès Varda

Image
     I have had the privilege of learning a lot about Agnès Varda. Some of the things I have learned are really important and serious facts while others are just fun little facts. One of these little facts I have learned is that her signature hairstyle was bright red hair grown out so that the top was gray! I thought this was such a funny little fact and it was so unique. Another thing I have learned is that Agnès started out as a photographer. I think this definitely helped her because as a director you have to be able to see the big picture of the movie. Another fun little fact is that her love of photography inspired her to live on the street named after the person who invented photography! One of the really cool and important facts I have learned about her is that right away she had great respect from male film makers. She was considered one of them. Women were not typically given this amount of respect so this is amazing and just shows what a talent she was.       Agnès Varda is i
Read more

Concepción Arenal

Image
       While in Spain I had the opportunity to learn lots about Concepción Arenal! Something that I learned about her is that in order to go to law school she had to dress like a boy. She had to do this for the men's sake. This really stuck out to me because I feel like we are still being told how to dress because of how males will take it. It is crazy that she died 110 years before I was born but we can both relate to this. Another thing I have learned about her is that she was an advocate for women in prison. She cared about how they were being treated and took action. I found it crazy that she was fired from being a prison inspector just because she was trying to help them. I think this makes her very honorable.      Concepción Arenal was an amazing feminist that fought for the right of women's education! I think this is a huge deal. It is because of women like her that I have the ability to go to BYU and write this blog post! I also think her contribution in women's pri
Read more