Fernando Cunha: 40 years of stages celebrated at the Festas do Mar in Cascais on the 31st of August
On the road and on stage, as in life, four decades are only fulfilled if many friends are found along the way, if complicity and partnerships are built, if families are formed. Fernando Cunha did all that and collected many friends, many projects and many kilometers in his artistic history.
Now, forty years after the start of this fruitful journey, the guitarist, songwriter, singer, producer and bringer of wills promises to celebrate in the best of places – the stage! – all those songs and all those friendships made over that time. It will be at Festas do Mar, in Cascais, that Fernando Cunha will blow out the 60 candles that mark his age and bring to his voice and that of several other people the songs that help tell this unique story.
With a life book that contains very important chapters such as Delfins, Resistência or Ar de Rock, Fernando has a lot to choose from in terms of repertoire and to help him sing all these hymns – some of his own, others written in partnership and still others other creations that he helped to give new life -, Cunha will have at his side a veritable cast of stars: Diogo Campos (Legal Evidence and Ar de Rock), Maria Leon (Ravel, Chameleon Collective and Ar de Rock), Henrique Gonçalves (Duque Province), Paulo Costa (Ritual Tejo and Ar de Rock), Olavo Bilac (Saints and Sinners and Resistance), Rui Pregal da Cunha (Heróis do Mar and LX90), Miguel Ângelo (Delphins and Resistance), Dora Fidalgon (Delphins), Tim (Resistência and Xutos & Pontapés), Tozé Santos (Perfume), José Cid (Quarteto 1111), Tozé Brito (Quarteto 1111), Teresa Salgueiro (Madredeus), Gospel Collective (Choir led by Selma Uamusse) and Pedro Oliveira (Seventh Legion).
On the other hand, the very present Invisíveis – a band that usually backs Fernando Cunha and is composed of João Campos (voice, acoustic guitar and ukulele), João Gomes (keyboards and backing vocals), João Alves (electric guitar and backing vocals), Philippe Keil (bass) and Francisco Cunha (drums) – will be accompanied at different times by notable musicians such as Pedro Jóia (Resistência), João Pedro Pimenta (producer of Sitiados), Antonio Horgan (Duque Province), Eduardo Faustino (Duque Province), Alexandre Frazão (Resistência), José Salgueiro (Resistência), Fernando Júdice (Resistência), Luis Sampaio (Dolphins), Emanuel Ramalho (Dolphins, Radio Macau), Rui Fadigas (Dolphins), Jorge Quadros (Dolphins), Jonathan Miller (Chameleon Collective) , Antonio Silvestre (ex– Delfins), FLAK (Radio Macau) and Alexandre Cortez (Radio Macau).
All these companions, friends, collaborators will help to bring to the party many eternal songs, from “Ao Passar Um Navio” or “Aquele Winter” to “A Minha Música”, “Amanhã É Semper Longe Demais”, “Paixão”, “Poir Who I Didn’t Forget”, “I Will Never Be Faithful Again”, “Bring Another Friend Too”, “I’m Not the Only One” or – as it couldn’t be otherwise – “Cascais Bay”, the setting for this whole celebration. And for the party to be complete, it also counts – and sings – the audience with which Fernando Cunha built a relationship of great complicity over these decades in which he helped to raise many of the songs that are sung with a single voice throughout Portugal. And even around the world.
On the 31st of August, the Festas do Mar also become a celebration of a man who never knew how to live far from that sea, inspiration for so much of his music. His name is Fernando Cunha and he has many generous friends.
