Cristina Branco

Born in Almeirim in the Ribatejo region of Portugal in 1972, Cristina Branco is part of the revival of fado that emerged in the 1990s, developing an approach closely linked to poetry and music adjacent to jazz. Initially drawn to jazz and chanson, Cristina Branco turned to fado after discovering recordings by Amália Rodrigues and began singing in small venues before being invited to the Netherlands, where her first live record, "Cristina Branco in Holland", was released in 1997. Her career was subsequently built around albums such as "Murmúrios" (1998), "Corpo Iluminado" (2001), "Ulisses" (2005), "Menina" (2016), "Branco" (2018) and "Eva" (2020), which attest to ongoing collaboration with guitarist Custódio Castelo and other musicians from both fado and European jazz. Cristina Branco's repertoire mixes traditional fados, original compositions and musical settings of classical and contemporary Portuguese poets, with attention to text, diction and pared-back acoustic arrangements. Highly present on Dutch, Belgian, French and German stages, Cristina Branco has developed over the course of tours a chamber-like, often intimate fado that dialogues with singer-songwriter chanson, folk and certain forms of improvised music.