The music, traditionally performed in an intimate setting known as a "fado house," is guitar-based, and built around classical guitar and the notoriously difficult 12-string Portuguese guitar.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... With her mahogany-rich voice, impassioned performances and striking looks, the Portuguese fado singer Mariza has, in a few short years, become a reigning ...

This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). It’s nearing midnight in Alfama, Lisbon’s oldest neighbourhood, when a lady in black steps into a taverna. The bar staff scurry to turn ...

As the first woman to professionally take up the Portuguese guitar, Lisbon’s Marta Pereira da Costa can fairly be described as a musical pioneer who has opened up new territory for female musicians.

Lisbon is having a moment. Once a sleepy secret with its back to Europe, Portugal’s sun-drenched capital has emerged from the global recession to become one of the world’s hottest destinations. In ...

Ana Moura says she didn't decide to become a fadista, a singer of the fervent, longing-filled Portuguese music called fado, or fate. "Fado chose me," says the lush-voiced Portuguese singer, who brings ...

In recent years, the melancholic Portuguese folk music known as fado has gotten a lot of play around the world. Many of the singers have stylized their songs to suit the tastes of an international ...

The musical threads of the Portuguese-speaking world stretch from Europe to South America and even to Africa. Betto Arcos, host of Global Village on KPFK in Los Angeles, gives Guy Raz a musical tour ...