Photo: Hélder Moutinho is featured at this year’s Fado Festival NY & NJ. Photo courtesy of Fado Festival NY & NJ / Provided by Cindy Byram PR with permission.

Fado Festival NY & NJ has become an annual tradition in the metropolitan area, and this year promises to be something special. The festival, which runs May 1-11, will include events in Downtown Manhattan and Newark, New Jersey.

Fado, of course, is a unique musical style that comes from the beautiful country of Portugal. The traditional singing and guitar playing can be heard in the New York-New Jersey area, including in the Ironbound neighborhood of Newark, thanks to the vibrant Portuguese-American community.

This year there will be multiple free performances at Brookfield Place New York. Four of fado’s most important singers will present concerts at Brookfield. Among the talent are Camané, Hélder Moutinho, Ana Sofia Varela, Maria Emília and jazz singer Sofia Ribeiro.

Ribeiro is set for lunchtime concerts May 1 and 2, while the other singers will play evening concerts May 3 and 4.

The festival finishes Saturday, May 11 with a historical and musical tour of the Ironbound of Newark, followed by some Portuguese food and fado music at the legendary Sport Club Portugues. This event costs $30 in advance, and $40 on the day. All other events are free.

On Saturday, May 4 at 7:30 p.m., Moutinho and Emília will share a double bill. In anticipation of that special concert, Moutinho recently answered some questions via email. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.

How far back does fado go in your family?

It goes back to before I was born. My family has been involved in fado for four generations. I grew up listening to my family’s fado records, and on Sunday afternoons we would open the doors to our friends and family to sing and play fado.

When did you first fall in love with this art form?

It’s always been part of my life. I really can’t remember a ‘before’ or ‘after.’

What songs will you be performing at your New York City concert?

I’ll be choosing from all of my personal repertoire, including traditional, classical fados.



Why do you believe fado continues to thrive generation after generation?

It is an authentic music: People feel the soul within it. It’s a music that lives within the souls of a city — Lisbon — and its people.



What is it about this art form that captures the hearts of listeners?

Even if they don’t know the language, people feel the nostalgia and so many other emotions that lie deep within the songs.



If an audience member doesn’t understand Portuguese and cannot follow the lyrics, will they still fall in love with the emotion of the songs?

Fadistas, the people who sing the fado, use the expression that when we truly believe the words that we say — and the feelings they transmit — that it’s an immediate connection, and that the fado ‘happens’ — regardless of language.

How physically demanding is a performance of fado?

The demands are not so much physical as emotional. When we sing and play, we live in the middle of the stories we are telling, talking about our feelings and reliving them.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

Fado Festival NY & NJ will take place May 1-11 in New York City and Newark, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.