Carminho - Maria

Acclaimed Portuguese fado singer Carminho's newest album, Maria, is now released in the United States, on Nonesuch Records.

The album, her first to be released in the US, was previously released in Europe, where London's Evening Standard called her voice "strong and sculptural," and London Jazz News called Maria "a beautifully realized, remarkably varied yet uniformly gorgeous album."

Maria is Carminho's fifth and most personal album: its title is her given first name, and also a name that goes deep into the Portuguese identity—very traditional, but also quite contemporary, a popular choice among young parents today, just as fado is part of a tradition yet also belongs to today's world. Additionally, Carminho wrote many of the lyrics and songs and she produced the record herself, for the first time. Carminho considers the album a dialogue between herself and two fado singers who blazed a trail for her: Beatriz da Conceição and Teresa Siqueira (her mother).