Nathalie Pires, whose CD I bought directly from her Web site, has a voice that could make her a queen among pop divas, or a vaunted country or jazz singer for that matter, but she sings fado, despite being a 23-year-old American college student, and the world is a better place for it. (She's the daughter of Portuguese immigrants, fluent at speaking and singing Portuguese and her father composed for, played and sang in Portuguse bands in the U.S., so it comes naturally.)
Her first CD is a nice mix of lively, ironic, kind of que sera, sera, this is what is fado (fado does, after all, mean fate) like E Ou Nao E; Italianesque operatic theatrical singing-style fado like Ai Mouraria; and very traditional, painfully sad fado like Com Que Voz and Estranha Forma de Vida. There is outstanding guitar playing as well, including a wonderous solo run on Variacoes em Re, which proceeds as if there were no singer on the track. But wait for the payoff. Fado, and a young fadista, of the first order.
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