Carminho
Carminho
Carminho, born in Lisbon in 1984, is the daughter of highly esteemed fado singer Teresa Siqueira. She gained international fame at a young age by starring in Carlos Saura’s film Fados in 2007. She achieved huge success with her first album, Fado, released in 2009, with musical compositions and poems of her own authorship, including ‘Nunca é silêncio vão’ [‘Never is silence in vain’].
On her 2023 album, Portuguesa [Portuguese Woman], in a new allusion to the symbols pertaining to national identity, Carminho presents ‘O Quarto’ [‘The Bedroom’], her most internationally popular song. This was the fado she performed, accompanied by the Portuguese guitar, in the famous and disturbing film Poor Things (2024),
by Yorgos Lanthimos, which won four of the eleven Oscars for which it was nominated. In a fantastical Lisbon setting, Carminho’s vocal performance, embodying a stylised portrayal of Maria Severa, captured global attention. In this scene, Carminho explains, ‘it’s the first time she [Bella Baxter, the story’s protagonist] realises that there is pain in the world’. And here is where tragedy, pain and lament—historically associated with Maria Severa, fado, and the national imagery they represent—once again make their appearance.
