Cristina Branco

At 28, Portuguese singer Cristina Branco has already established herself as one of the leading singers in the national fado style, a genre akin to Greek rembétika or blues, where the weight of life and love hangs heavy but is borne with dignity. Post-Scriptum, her second U.S. release (and fourth overall) illustrates how perfect a fit her voice is for the music, which makes the fact that she's come to it recently all the more surprsing.

"I discovered fado for real about ten years ago," she recalled, "but I've only been singing it for four or five years, and now it's my life. It's the way I cry and I laugh. It's just a way of expressing myself, so it's life above all."

While music is now her art and living, before fado "I just sang for myself and my family, to have fun." It was a way of expressing herself, even if she never performed before an audience. "Now I'm always singing, even when I'm not onstage, because, well, it's bigger than me."

The genre has historically been rooted in Lisbon, but even there Branco defied the odds, growing up outside the capital, and listening to "everything but pop. I've always loved world music, but especially bossa nova, tango, and flamenco. And blues, of course, I grew up with that and jazz, so it was my first musical influence."

"It's the way I cry and I laugh...it's life above all."

She was in college, studying social communications, when she experienced her blinding revelation.

"One day someone invited me to hear those beautiful instruments. I listened and it was magic. I fell in love from the first moment, and I knew I had to do something with it. It was deeper than me, stronger than me."

Quite what she'd do with this feeling she didn't really know, and she was "still studying when I began singing semi-professionally. I didn't know what was going on with music and myself. I had to make my first record to discover that this is my way, my path, and my life. So it was a very deep, conscious process, a research of me as an individual, a human being."

While she carries on the tradition of great fadistas like Amália Rodrigues, there's nothing archaic about her sound. Branco uses the standard fado ensemble of Portuguese guitar, guitar, and bass, but there are definite touches of jazz and blues in her inflections, giving the music a contemporary feel.

"People say that, but I don't know yet," she admitted. "I'm absolutely influenced by all the kinds of music I hear besides fado. But I don't know yet if I can hear blues when I listen to my voice. But I feel I'm influenced."

As with the music of many countries, the lyrics of fado are vitally important. Branco draws her, such as "Ai Vida" by Jorge Fernando, from modern poetry.

"For me, the words are the basis. If I don't like the poem I can never sing it, even if I love the music. If the words say nothing to my heart, leave it. If I sing something that relates to the ‘50s or the ‘20s, it doesn't appeal to my heart. I must songs that are about my life."

In just a few short years she's established a process for the creation of her material, working with partner Custódio Castelo, whereby "first I pick a poem I love, then I ask Custódio if he thinks that poem has music. If he says yes, then he tries to make the music, or we try to put it in a traditional fado and make a new arrangement. If he writes the music first, I have to say ‘I feel this poem in this music.' It's our way of working, and so personal."

Like rembétika, the blues, or the saudade of Cape Verde, fado is felt as much as heard. It reaches to the heart. And it's completely captured Cristina Branco.

"I'll never make a record that isn't fado," she said emphatically. "It can be so many things besides what I'm doing now. I can always make a different record and it will always have a scent of fado."