On September 12, 2025, by 2:30pm, will be held the doctoral examinations in Musicology – Specialization in Ethnomusicology of Master Caio Felipe Gonçalves Mourão, who will defend his dissertation titled “Andam guitarras a gemer de mão em mão”: the bizarreness of fado from and beyond Fado Bicha, supervised by Andrew Snyder.
Ph.D Committee:
- Prof. Dr João Soeiro de Carvalho, President of the Committee (INET-md, NOVA FCSH)
- Prof. Dr Rui Vieira Nery (INET-md, NOVA FCSH)
- Prof. Dr Sofia Aboim (ICS, ULisboa)
- Prof. Dr Andrew Snyder, Supervisor (INET-md, NOVA FCSH)
- Prof. Dr Hugo Ribeiro (Universidade de Brasília)
- Prof. Dr Daniel Silva (Rutgers University)
“Andam guitarras a gemer de mão em mão”: the bizarreness of fado from and beyond Fado Bicha
In this study I examine fado, the icon of Portuguese musical culture, based on the work of Fado Bicha, which I understand as both the name of a group and a stylistic proposal. A member of the country’s so-called “queer-music” scene, the group defined itself as the first representative of “fado-bicha” or “fado-LGBT+”, which differed from other styles of fado by the explicit presence of non-straight and non-cis characters in song lyrics and video clips. Through the artivist performances of the drag queen Lila Fadista, which in a parodic way mixed music and political discourses, the group aimed to obtain validation and acceptance from the fado community, at the same time that it tried to conquer major Portuguese and foreign stages, governed by the logic of commercial world-music. However, by maintaining the drag fate, the group failed to gain success both with the fado community and the mainstream. Rejected, the drag decides to take revenge with exuberance, by killing fado. What can we learn about the borders of fado and world music from an artivist group that demands the explicit representation of marginalized genders and sexualities within the hybrid musical and behavioral language of fado?
Despite being understood as traditional, fado lyrics described the genre as “bizarre” in several poems, which depicted transgressive behaviors in its community, ever since its origins as “fado-batido”, a sensual and satirical Afro-Brazilian dance. Its transgressiveness was augmented when it was used both by the Portuguese Estado Novo and by opponents of the Regime; both by singers who reproduced politically neutral national folklore and female objectification to enter the world-music market, and by fado singers who disseminated their activist ideas and dissident sexualities independently. As an oral tradition, fado maintained harsh, but impersonal, musical rites of passage, which disregarded, for example, the sexuality and nationality of its practitioners.
Such complexity goes beyond the word “queer”, proposed by Fado Bicha, for understanding fado. The concept of “bizarre” was born (or revealed) to me, which I use intersectionally to integrate musical, racial, socioeconomic and nationality aspects to the queer markers of identity gender and sexuality. However, this bizarreness continues to coexist with a traditionalism that denies subversive elements, just as happened with Fado Bicha. Based on this concept of the bizarre and this contradiction at the heart of fado, I demonstrate not only the reasons why FB was invalidated, which concerned the lack of adaptation to fado rites of passage and marketing models; I also clarify the reason for the group’s incessant search for recognition in this musical genre, that is, the fatalistic fulfillment of its drag destiny, of its fate, which impelled the group to shout from the rooftops that it was the greatest of all failures.
Keywords: Bizarrismo; fado-batido; queer-music; fado-LGBT.