Amália Rodrigues

Amália Rodrigues took fado from the taverns of Lisbon's old quarters to concert halls worldwide from the 1940s onwards, and commissioned poets and composers to write for her, widening what the form could say. She is the reason fado has an international audience at all, and Portugal declared three days of national mourning when she died in 1999. Her recordings remain the standard against which every new fadista is measured.