UNESCO heritage since 2011, and the only music in the world sung to a twelve-string guitar built for it. We sing it every night, and this page is for anyone who wants to understand it before hearing it.
Fado is a Portuguese urban song, born in Lisbon in the first half of the 19th century, among the streets, the taverns and the river. It is sung solo, accompanied by Portuguese guitar and viola, and what sets it apart is not the melody: it is what the voice does with it.
UNESCO inscribed it on the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2011. That is why hearing fado in Portugal is not watching a folklore show: it is hearing a living tradition, one that keeps changing with whoever sings it.
The word that always walks beside it is saudade, and it has no exact translation in any language. It is the absence of something you once had, or never quite had. Fado sings that, and it also sings jealousy, the sea, the neighbourhood and the life that turned out the way it turned out.
There are two fados, and they are not the same. Fado de Lisboa, which is what is sung in this house, belongs to the voice and the room, and is sung by women and men alike. Fado de Coimbra belongs to students, is sung only by men, in cape and gown, and is heard standing and in the dark.
Fado means fate. The word comes from the Latin fatum, and Portuguese still uses it that way in everyday speech: “é o meu fado”, “it is my fate”, is said of whatever life has dealt you. The song took the name because that is what it sings about.
You say it FAH-doo, with the stress on the first syllable. In Portugal the final “o” closes into an “oo”, and the “d” is soft, close to the “th” in “the”. “FAY-doe” is the most common mistake, and nobody in the room will hold it against you.
The person who sings it is the fadista, and the room where it is sung over dinner is a fado house, a casa de fado. And it has nothing to do with the Irish word fadó, which means “long ago” and opens stories the way “once upon a time” does: the same letters, in another language altogether.
It has a pear-shaped body, twelve steel strings in six pairs, and a fan of tuning pegs at the head that exists on no other instrument in the world. That fan is what is drawn at the top of this page, and of every other page on this site.
The twelve strings are tuned in pairs, which gives it the metallic, doubled sound you recognise from the first note. It is not a classical guitar in a different shape: it is another instrument, with another technique and another repertoire.
There are two models, and they sound different. The Lisbon one is higher and sharper; the Coimbra one is larger, deeper and rounder. This house plays the Lisbon model, which is the one that accompanies the fado sung here.
Beside it there is always the viola de fado, which is a nylon-string classical guitar and carries the accompaniment underneath. One draws the line, the other holds the floor: that is why there are two musicians, and never one.
See what the night is like
There are no written rules, but there is a custom, and it is the same in every real fado house. Hear live fado in Porto, every night.
“Quiet, the fado is about to be sung.” It is what is said before the first note, and it is not a formula: it is the request. While the singing lasts, the room falls quiet. Nobody talks, nobody serves, nobody gets up.
It is the one rule of this house, and it is the rule that makes being here worth it.
Each fado is one whole piece. You applaud when the last note dies and the guitarist lifts his hand from the strings, and not between verses.
The singer chooses what to sing, and in what order. A fado is not a karaoke request: it is part of a night the fadista is building while singing it.
Here we do not even announce who is singing: each night has its own voice.
“Quiet, the fado is about to be sung.” What is said before the first note. Here, every night.
Excellent experience!! Fantastic service. Very friendly staff. Phenomenal food, beautifully presented. Thank you Jessica for the fado and for the surprise of Ana, who sang for us too. Wonderful voices, with their fantastic musicians!!!
Translated from Portuguese
Márcia Lourenço
Google
The best restaurant in Porto for hearing fado, with incredible food to go with it! Thank you Eduardo for looking after us so well! We will definitely be back!
Translated from Portuguese
Cristiana Simoes
Google
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Dinner is by reservation. There is fado every night, in two shows: the first around 19:45 and the second at 22:00.
Group and company dinners are arranged directly with us, by phone 934 000 100 or on WhatsApp.
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