The poem by Pedro Homem de Mello that is heard every month in the streets of Viana do Castelo, marking the Festas d’Agonia every day, opened today the official program of the 2020 Pilgrimage, but now for the voice and art of 48 musicians, professional singers and amateurs, from fado to hip-hop, who came together to make history.
Immortalized in the voice of Amália Rodrigues since 1969, the poem “Havemos de ir a Viana”, music by Alain Oulman, has long since become a symbol of the party, but whose verses will not echo throughout the city this year, sung as usual by the thousands of people who always attend parades and processions.
In an edition of Festas d’Agonia to feel at a distance, due to the covid-19 pandemic, the Party Commission left this news a secret to precisely open the program, disseminating the video clip through the social media of the Pilgrimage.
For several days, 48 musicians, professional singers and amateurs, from Viana do Castelo and beyond, from fado to hip-hop, through rock and jazz, accepted the challenge of the Party Commission and helped make history by re-recording the poem “Havemos de ir a Viana”, each with its own style, in a memorable fusion that portrays what it was like to always feel and live this party, even if in different ways in 2020.
The video clip released this Wednesday on the social media of the Pilgrimage is the first moment of the 2020 party, which will only be made with numbers and moments transmitted and remembered through the Internet.
“They are artists, professionals and amateurs, of different musical styles, who have met to leave a mark in the history of our culture. And so they left a record forever, eternalizing a theme, a poem, which has been ours for a long time, but using a little of each musical culture that exists in Viana do Castelo ”, added António Cruz.
Between August 19 and 23, the Festas d’Agonia will be felt in digital format, through the official website, through social networks, but also through radio and television. Each of the main tables of the Parties will be marked through a video posted on the official website of the Parties
d’Agonia 2020, which despite happening without the physical presence of the many hundreds of thousands of partygoers who travel to Viana do Castelo on the days of the party, year after year, will reach the four corners of the world via the internet
The devotion to Senhora d’Agonia began in 1751, with the entrance of the image in the Chapel of Bom Jesus. In 1783 the Sacred Congregation of Rites granted faculty and license for every year to celebrate in this chapel, on August 20, a Solemn Mass, a date that the city of Viana elected as a Municipal Holiday.
