Luanda, Oct. 17, 2025 (Lusa) - Angolan and Portuguese performers celebrated Angola's 50 years of independence in Luanda to the sound of fado, a Portuguese musical genre that is beginning to appeal to some Angolans, according to the chair of the executive committee of Caixa Angola bank.
The 8th edition of the "Caixa Fado Festival", promoted by Caixa Angola bank, took place on Thursday evening, bringing together Angolan musicians Matias Damásio, Heroide, Anabela Aya and Portuguese musicians Camané, Filipa Cardoso, Marco Rodrigues and Ana Sofia Varela.
The performers, "United by History, Together for Freedom", the motto of this 8th edition of the Caixa Fado Festival, which was sold out, treated the audience to songs such as ‘Porquê do Fado’ and ‘Era o Adeus’, performed by Heroide, a young Angolan singer who made her debut at this event.
Speaking to the press, Heroide, who performed a duet with Portuguese singer Filipa Cardoso, said she had acquired a taste for fado and learned to perform it "just by listening" and expressed her happiness and confidence.
Heroide, who made her first appearance in Lisbon this year, hopes to perform a duet with fado singers Marco Rodrigues and Sara Correia in the future.
Filipa Cardoso considered her participation in the show "a source of pride and an honour," expressing her admiration for Heroide, her Angolan colleague with whom she shared the stage.
"I am in love with that girl's voice, she is very talented. She was very nervous for no reason at all, because she has a long and great career ahead of her. She chose a particularly funny song from my album, ’O Cai a Noite‘, which I hadn't sung in a long time, and it was a privilege to sing with her," she said.
The Portuguese fado singer also said that she felt "very embraced by the Angolan people," stressing that it is interesting and that she really enjoys sharing the stage with artists from other musical genres, "with musicians from other cultures," a fusion that "always works very well," not only because they share the same language, but because "semba has the same depth as fado."
(Semba is a musical and dance style typical of Angola, considered one of the pillars of Angolan music and a direct predecessor of Kizomba. It became very popular from the 1950s onwards. The word semba means belly button in the Quimbundo language).
Also from Angola, singer Anabela Aya performed for the third time at the ‘Festival Caixa Fado’, having shared the stage on other occasions with Marco Rodrigues and Ana Sofia Varela, and is already waiting for the next invitation.
Anabela Aya, who was elected Diva of Angolan Music in 2017, pointed out that interest in this Portuguese musical style is still not very significant, and that more work is needed to open Angolans up to "new sounds".
The artist, a reference in Afro-jazz and soul, who also ventures into Cabo Verdean morna, zouk and semba, considered that for the celebration of the country's jubilee, it "makes perfect sense" for Portuguese and Angolans to be together.
Portuguese fado singer Camané, who has been performing in Angola since 1993 and is a regular at this festival, emphasised the fact that there is an increasing "proximity to this music", highlighting that "there are lots of people with an enormous capacity to sing some fados".
"I am referring, for example, to Matias Damásio, the way he sang “Lágrima” and sang “Lisboa Menina e Moça” with me was fantastic, and then the fact that he sang “Fado da Tristeza”,’ he said.
According to Camané, Angolans and Portuguese are united by the same language, recalling that he has many Angolan childhood friends, whom he still meets today, and that there is an increasingly strong relationship between African culture, particularly Angolan, and Portuguese culture.
Regarding the festival, the executive president of Caixa Angola, Manuela Ferreira, highlighted "the great exchange between the two cultures" and the full house for the show.
"At each festival, we seek to bring in new people, new talents, and also to offer the public a diversity of voices, but in fact there are a number of people who have been with us practically since day one, who are part of this structure, who were born with us in this project, and whom we cannot fail to invite," she said.
For Manuela Ferreira, there is already a large Angolan population interested in fado, even though it is not "a sound that is intrinsically linked to the country's DNA, which is more colourful, warmer and more rhythmic".
"Since the first show, we have been surprised by the Angolan public's enthusiasm, which we had not expected," she added.
NME/AYLS // AYLS
Lusa
