Ana Moura started out singing fado, the Portuguese answer to the blues, in Lisbon. Mixing traditional forms with so-called “musical fado”, in which other songs are given the emotional treatment, she began edging towards the pop mainstream, sang with the Rolling Stones and Prince, and worked with producer Larry Klein. Today, she is a mainstream star in Portugal and this opening concert in the La Linea festival had been sold out for weeks. José Mourinho and Mick Jagger were both in the hall, Moura announced excitedly.
She looked and sounded tremendous, stalking the stage in long, glittering gowns (first black, then white) and revealing a voice that can switch from soulful melancholia to jollity. But commercial success has altered her music. While that other great fado singer, Mariza, is still backed by the classic lineup of guitar, Portuguese guitar and acoustic bass guitar, Moura favours electric bass and the often unnecessary addition of keyboards and percussion. Still, for her most poignant, intimate fado, she was backed only by Portuguese guitar.
Fado, she explained, can also include dance music, and her audience wanted upbeat, clapalong songs such as the rousing new Dia del Folga. She mysteriously ignored the most experimental cover song on the new album, Lilac Wine, but included a powerful reworking of the Rolling Stones’ No Expectations, now treated as a classic pained fado lament.
• At the Barbican, London, 26 September. Box office: 020-7638 8891.
