Remo Fernandes’ second fado is a love song for Portugal’s Alentejo

Alentejo is a beach-connected city on the western edge of Portugal, facing the gusty trade winds that blow through the Atlantic Ocean. It is also the protagonist of Remo Fernandes’ latest song ‘Fado da Terra Lenta’ (Fado of the Slow Land), which was released on YouTube last weekend.

It’s been 68 years since Remo, a pioneer of Indian pop music in the 1980s – has been awarded the Padma Shri, the brand ambassador for an international soft drink, performed with members of iconic bands like Queen and Led Zeppelin Rahman’s popular ‘Humma Humma’, voiced in AR Mani Ratnam’s film Bombay and backed up to Konkani tunes from his home state of Goa – now looking down his guitar towards the rolling grasslands of Portugal, where he stays for a part of the year.

“This song is dedicated to the beautiful land, people and cuisine of the Alentejo, a place I have always loved,” says Remo via email. “When I saw it again, I was inspired to write a fado in its honor, even though it’s not the traditional music of the area. But the form worked well for a space that was just as slow and ‘sosegado’ Is as Goa used to be back in the day. White washed houses with their blue trim, laid-back and friendly people, Honesty… It’s hard to find all of these in Goa today, but I do find them in the Alentejo. “

Fado is a pleasant-to-sad type of music, melodically moving through its notes, guided by Portuguese and classical guitars. Modern fadists have taken the fado out of the traditional fado tavern where it originated in the early 18th century and filled it with happy feelings. When Iberian sailors trampled their cannons east and west in the hope of gold, glory and the gospel, the fado longing breeds became part of the cultures of Portuguese colonies such as Goa and Brazil.

“This is the second Portuguese fado that I have written and composed. I did it this August in the Alentejo and recorded it in Porto. In October, I returned to the Alentejo and shot the video. The first was ‘Fado Goa’ from my 1984 included in the album Goa Crazysays Remo.

Why wait three decades? “No one knows when inspiration will inspire you to write. The first two lines came to my mind one night after dinner, and I picked up my guitar and strummed and sang them. From the other room, Xenia [his partner] Made and sang more songs. So did my brother-in-law Carmelino from the front yard. And then my sister Belinda who was watching a movie in the sitting room. It was a moment of fun and laughter, we all made up for the most dastardly songs we could think of. But I recorded the basic idea on my phone. It took me three days to compose and write the finished version,” says Remo.

For the song, Remo uses the fado corrido (running fado), a fast and lively form, determined by the lightness of the ukulele, locally called cavaquinho. “I grew up listening to fado and other popular Portuguese, Brazilian and Latin music, in addition to Goan, of course, long before I heard English music, rock and pop. In Goa, many of us stuck in pre-1961 have happened, and only know fado and other things (including language) as they existed before the liberation of Goa. But I have sung this fado not as a traditional fadista, but as a soft slow ballad,” Remo says, adding that fado is also being sung in more natural ways, especially in Portugal.

When COVID-19 first came, Remo sang ‘When will you learn man?’ With urgency on how to deal with the pandemic, but now he seems to be earning for a slow, civilized world. That’s why the video for the song (shot by Genia Costa Pereira) features Remo singing all the voices not within the confines of a fado house but looking at the rolling landscape of the Alentejo. The music is mixed with black-and-white photographs of Homburg-hat-wearing men and white-washed architectural pieces from the days of the conquistadors – appropriate when you’re singing of longing and love for a way of life that Has passed in the pages of a history book.