Mulher do Norte

There is hardly a greater challenge to any fadista than addressing the immaculate and unbeatable Amália Rodrigues’ repertoire. Amália cannot be matched at her own game and it's inevitable that everyone will fall short in comparison; there is also no better way to disclose a singer's weak spots. Claudia Aurora's latest release Mulher do Norte is no exception to this rule. Even if Aurora keeps a safe distance from the heavier emotional fados that Rodrigues sang with an astounding weight, her attempts to inject something new into ‘Filha das Ervas’ and especially ‘Havemos de Ir a Viana’ don’t mask the feeling that these shoes are too big for her feet.

And it's truly a pity. Because the song ‘Filha das Ervas’ follows a curious path wherein Aurora takes advantage of a colourful instrumentation – with an almost chamber-like approach – to close in on a classical French chanson and blur her fado into something else, nuanced by the great Edith Piaf. What Mulher do Norte actually seems to bring home is that Claudia Aurora benefits significantly from keeping fado at arm's length. The less of it she puts into her music, the more successful she sounds in her singing, as if she's finally allowed to search for her own nature and not someone else's.