Cristina Branco is one of the most important Portuguese artists of the last decades, with 17 edited albums and countless concerts given all over the world. Her most recent work, Eva (2020) has conquered the public and critics and confirmed Cristina Branco as one of the most versatile interpreters in the Portuguese music scene.
She began her journey in Holland, where she recorded Cristina Branco in Holland (Live) (1997), an album that ended up becoming a real success in that country. In the following years the name of Cristina Branco resonates throughout Europe. However, it is only at the turn of the millennium, with Corpo Iluminado (2001), O Discoverer (2002) disc that she reaches double platinum, Sensus (2003) and Ulisses (2005), that Cristina Branco finally begins to be discovered and acclaimed by Portuguese public and press. Her comparisons with Amália Rodrigues are inevitable.
This is followed by Abril (2007), an album with versions of songs by José Afonso, Kronos (2009) and There is not only Tangos in Paris (2011), his tenth studio album, which has the collaboration of authors and composers such as Mário Laginha, Carlos Tê and Pedro da Silva Martins. The disc shows the first signs that Cristina Branco’s music could have a different guise and foreshadows the phase of artistic rejuvenation that would come a few years later with ninaMenina.
Considered the Best Album of the Year by SPA, Girl (2016), it is the first chapter of a trilogy that includes the jovial and kaleidoscopic White (2018) and Eva (2020). In these, Cristina Branco draws unusual collaborations that cross styles, cultures and geographies and result in innovative and spontaneous interpretations of the traditional musical expression of fado. Eva is an unpredictable record rich in filigrees that reveal the intimacy and depth of Cristina Branco. The record appears in the form of a question: “what is freedom for me?”. We find the answer in the diary of Eva Haussman, an alter-ego of the singer. Eva personifies the freedom that Cristina Branco pursues. Through the delicate firmness of her voice, we open the doors to what is the singer’s most personal and intimate work.
Today, about to celebrate 25 years of her career, Cristina Branco shows herself exactly as she is, true, free and genuine. Fado will always be present. Cristina brings you to the senses.
Cristina Branco’s next concert will take place on the 24th of July, in duo with pianist João Paulo Esteves Silva, at Aldeia de Xisto de Cerdeira, Lousã.
