The music, traditionally performed in an intimate setting known as a "fado house," is guitar-based, and built around classical guitar and the notoriously difficult 12-string Portuguese guitar.

As the first woman to professionally take up the Portuguese guitar, Lisbon’s Marta Pereira da Costa can fairly be described as a musical pioneer who has opened up new territory for female musicians.

This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK). It’s nearing midnight in Alfama, Lisbon’s oldest neighbourhood, when a lady in black steps into a taverna. The bar staff scurry to turn ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. “Lisbon is the city of fado,” says Portuguese singer Carminho. “You have to experience it when you're there.” Carminho, who ...

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... With her mahogany-rich voice, impassioned performances and striking looks, the Portuguese fado singer Mariza has, in a few short years, become a reigning ...

It's after dark in Lisbon's ramshackle Alfama neighborhood. Old-timers gather in restaurants, which serve little more than grilled sardines, to hear and sing Portugal's mournful fado ... a traditional ...

A few years ago I arrived in Lisbon, Portugal, while it was still dark. At 6:30 a.m., just as the escalator pushed me up onto the sidewalk, the sun and the city were coming into their own. Everything ...

Ana Moura says she didn't decide to become a fadista, a singer of the fervent, longing-filled Portuguese music called fado, or fate. "Fado chose me," says the lush-voiced Portuguese singer, who brings ...