The Portuguese musical alchemist - Dulce Pontes

Dulce Pontes is Portugal’s most popular singer, and its most promising star. Comfortably sat in the plush throne that lies at the top of the country’s neo-folk/classical hierarchy, Dulce has sparkled, dazzled, shone and charmed her way into the hearts of thousands of people around the world with her crystal-shattering voice and alluring presence. Either modestly clad in flowing tunics or elaborately wrapped in corsets, veils and panniers like a gigantic gift, La Pontes travels across the world by jumping from scenario to scenario, where she wails about lost loves, fallen empires and the boundless pain of existence with both delicate vulnerability and unstoppable conviction. Dulce Pontes is one hell of a terrific musician, to be clearer.

Born in 1969 to a pharmacist and a homemaker, Dulce lived all her childhood in the tiny town of Montijo, just a few kilometres away from Lisbon. The fact that her town is so close to the capital meant that there were no restrictions to what she could have access to, so at five she was enrolled at the Academia de Música de Santa Cecília, an extremely prestigious school known for the excellency of its integrated educational programme, which makes music an integral part of the students’ lives. There she obviously became a star pupil, noted for her outstanding abilities as a pianist. However, Dulce wasn’t all that happy with piano and, after finishing school, she refused to continue her musical studies. Instead, she became a dancer and actress, often appearing on television series in very secondary roles.

Things changed in 1991, when a 22-year-old Dulce earned the ’honour’ of representing Portugal in Eurovision with the soporific ballad Lusitana Paixão/Lusitanian Passion. Even though she came out eighth (the Eurovision public was VERY generous that day), the song became a huge hit in Portugal for some inexplicable reason, and her musical career started. She first released the album Lusitana, which shouldn’t be included in her discography because it’s simply shit – they couldn’t have gotten so many unbelievably bad and impossibly boring songs even if they had actually gone to hell to find them.



Understandably dissatisfied with the way her career was going, she decided to take matters in her own hands and, after a very successful tour, she released the super album Lágrimas/Tears in 1993. Oh Lord, is it GREAT! If you’re like me and like grandiloquent techno and folk/pop fusions with far too many pretensions of seriousness, you’re gonna love it. If you just happen to like impossibly beautiful music, you’re gonna be crazy about it! The first single to be taken from the album, Canção Do Mar, became a huge World Music hit and was even included in the soundtrack of the blah Richard Gere thriller 'Primal Fear'.

Instead of keeping things as they were, Dulce decided to continue challenging her public by releasing modernized versions of fado classics, going on a trip all around Portugal with a tape recorder to register the many musical traditions within the country and draw inspiration for her 1999 work of art O Primeiro Canto/The First Chant (her best album, without a single doubt), and then going on to become über-musical genius Ennio Morricone’s muse – her latest studio album, 2003’s Focus, was entirely composed of songs written by Ennio, especially adapted to suit her style! Needless to say, everything that Dulce has ever done is simply awesome and ought to be massively popular. Thanks to the quality of her music and voice, she is revered in Portugal and has a very devoted following both in Spain and many European countries.



Finally, after I ask you to go to Amazon and buy her albums, I’d like to talk a little about the comparisons that have been drawn between Dulce and the immortal goddess, the perfect Amália Rodrígues. Dulce has an amazing voice and is incredibly good at what she does. She triumphs gloriously with anything she touches, especially when she sings semi-classical music. HOWEVER, there’s no one, not a single person in the whole world, who can even dream about daring to try and compare themselves to the one, the only, the unique Amália. She was the voice of fado and nobody can ever try to come close to what she was. Not a soul. After this little rant, let’s go with the selection for today, shall we?

Canção Do Mar/Song Of The Sea

The song that turned Dulce into a superstar, this World Music classic marked her first incursion into techno-fied folk. It’s nothing danceable, however. Everything is assembled in such a way that, even though it’s impossible not to notice a touch of technology in the song (there’s not a single live instrument), somehow it all manages to still feel very much traditional; like some sort of sorrowful chant for the electronic era. Which is positive – the song creates a cold, stormy atmosphere that suggests raging waves and freezing mornings under a grey sky. Something interesting is that this is, in reality, a very famous fado called Solidão/Loneliness, which was rescued from oblivion by Amália Rodrígues in the fifties. Unhappy with the sappy lyrics, Dulce changed the message and the structure of the song to create a monumental homage to both the dangers of maritime life and the sorrows of unrequited love and jealousy. Video.

O Infante/The Royal Prince

The first single for Dulce's second album Caminhos/Roads (1996), this delicate, hazy ballad softly waves through your mind like ripples on the surface of a lake. The music was written by Dulce herself, although the lyrics are actually a poem by celebrated writer João Pessoa. An ode to the creation of the world that manages to make reference in a few lines to the enormous importance that maritime expeditions had for the formation of the Portuguese empire, and its ultimate destruction (by a curse of the sea, says the poem) this is simply gorgeous and truly attests to Dulce’s musical sensibility and sophistication.

O’ Mare E Tu/The Sea And You (duet with Andrea Bocelli)

Sung in both Portuguese and Italian, this reposed, melancholic ballad has a very strong, earthy folk flavour, but it slowly builds into a majestic semi-classical monument that highlights the beautiful combination of Dulce’s metallic, watery soprano and Andrea Bocelli’s wavering tenor. The end of the song, when they start singing around each other, is simply awesome! Even though I personally hate Andrea Bocelli (I’ll never understand what it is that Pavarotti saw in him), I have to say that he is particularly effective here, providing a strong contrast in style with Dulce’s parts. Lovely. Here’s the video.

Ondéia (Água)/Undulate (Water)

This is my favourite song by Dulce; it closes her spectacular album O Primeiro Canto. It doesn’t really have any lyrics besides the occasional pronouncing of the word ondéia, but it is simply amazing. I wouldn’t call this song watery (yes, no more water metaphors! At last! ;-) ), but crepuscular. Whenever I hear this song, I like imagine an orange sun setting in the mountains after several days of rain – yes, crepuscular is the best way to describe it. However, there’s nothing sad about it; it’s just beautiful and relaxing, only interrupted by a spectacular display of vocal prowess and range in the mid-section of the song. Simply superb. Live performance.

Φωτιά Και Χιόνι – Fotia Kai Chioni/Fire And Snow (duet with Eleftheria Arvanitaki)

To close this selection I’ve included this song, a duet with Greek elafra superstar Eleftheria Arvanitaki (I’m gonna post about her later in the month and I’ll talk about elafra then, don’t worry). An airy ballad that softly flows through the air in tiny sparkles, it is driven by two endless guitar solos that intertwine and separate constantly in the background of the voices. Dulce proves to be quite adept when singing in the mezzo range, and lends some intensity to Eleftheria’s creamy, soft natural tone. The end is simply gorgeous, and for some reason, makes me quite sad. It's taken from Eleftheria's 2001 album Ekpombi/Emission.