Toronto's first International Fado Festival brings Portuguese saudade to sold-out halls
The three-weekend festival in Toronto and Mississauga paired local fadistas with stars from Portugal.
TORONTO —
Toronto is hosting its first International Fado Festival, a three-weekend series running from Sept. 25 to Oct. 11 that pairs local fadistas with singers from Portugal. 1
Organizer José Eustáquio, executive president of the Alliance of Portuguese Clubs and Associations of Ontario, said community venues in Toronto and Mississauga with hundreds of seats sold out consistently. “Each night, we invited iconic singers from Portugal,” he said. “It's a celebration of who we are as a people and our origins.” 1
Roots in Kensington Market
A large wave of Portuguese immigrants arrived in Canada in the 1950s, fleeing poverty and dictatorship. Many settled in Kensington Market, where Toronto's first fado house opened in 1956 and later became Lisboa à Noite. 1
Toronto guitarist Simon Arruda, who played in the festival, ties fado to the sea and to fishermen who left with a high chance of never coming back. “Fado became our song to express saudade,” he said, describing it as “an intense nostalgia for things to be as they were, or for someone to return.” 1
“When I arrived in the early '70s, it wasn't cool to be a Portuguese kid,” Eustáquio said. Arruda said English was pushed in many homes, and the loss of Portuguese in the second generation made the music harder to connect with. 1
Fadista Jennifer Bettencourt said learning a fado song as a teenager in the 1990s “awoke a flame” and made her proud to be Luso-Canadian. 1
A wider audience
Stars such as Mariza and Carminho now regularly sell out venues including Toronto's Koerner Hall and Montreal's Place des Arts, drawing audiences beyond the Portuguese diaspora. Eustáquio credits Luso-Canadian pop artists Nelly Furtado and Shawn Mendes, while Bettencourt points to Carminho's performance in the Oscar-winning film Poor Things. 1
Montreal fadista Suzi Silva, who performed on Oct. 3, blends fado with jazz and also sings in French to reach Quebec audiences. 1
Eustáquio hopes to expand the festival across Ontario, and Arruda would like to see a fado school in Toronto. Silva has warned of a severe shortage of traditional Portuguese guitarists in Canada as older musicians retire. 1
Bettencourt said the scene lacks regular venues. “Fado is traditionally experienced around a table. People eat, and the artist sings between bites,” she said, adding she would like local restaurants to host regular “Fado Fridays.” 1
Sources
This article was reported and written by Sofia Lam and edited by Daniel Okafor. It draws on the sources above, which are credited in the text. Our standards · Report an error
