++ madonna

As "Hung Up" spends a third week as the UK #1 single, and "Confessions on a Dancefloor", the second as the UK's #1 album, here goes a summary of the UK chart history for Madonna. I'm sure everyone (the 5 people who read this blog anyway) was anxiously waiting for this.


Singles

Jan 84 - holiday - #2
Mar 84 - lucky star - #14
Jun 84 - borderline - #2
Nov 84 - like a virgin - #3
Mar 85 - material girl - #3
Jun 85 - crazy for you - #2
+ Jul 85 - into the groove - #1 (4 wks)
Sep 85 - angel - #5
Oct 85 - gambler - #4
Dec 85 - dress you up - #5
Apr 86 - live to tell - #2
+ Jun 86 - papa don't preach - #1 (3 wks)
+ Oct 86 - true blue - #1 (1 wk)
Dec 86 - open your heart - #4
+ Apr 87 - la isla bonita - #1 (2 wks)
+ Jul 87 - who's that girl - #1 (1 wk)
Sep 87 - causing a commotion - #4
Dec 87 - the look of love - #9
+ Mar 89 - like a prayer - #1 (3 wks)
Jun 89 - express yourself - #5
Sep 89 - cherish - #3
Dec 89 - dear jessie - #5
+ Apr 90 - vogue - #1 (4 wks)
Jul 90 - hanky panky - #2
Dec 90 - justify my love - #2
Mar 91 - crazy for you (remix) - #2
Apr 91 - rescue me - #3
Jun 91 - holiday (re-issue) - #5
Jul 92 - this used to be my playground - #3
Oct 92 - erotica - #3
Dec 92 - deeper and deeper - #6
Mar 93 - bad girl - #10
Apr 93 - fever - #6
Jul 93 - rain - #7
Apr 94 - i'll remember - #7
Oct 94 - secret - #5
Dec 94 - take a bow - #16
Feb 95 - bedtime story - #4
Aug 95 - human nature - #8
Nov 95 - you'll see - #5
Jan 96 - oh father - #16
Mar 96 - one more chance - #11
Nov 96 - you must love me - #10
Dec 96 - don't cry for me argentina - #3
Mar 97 - another suitcase in another hall - #7
+ Mar 98 - frozen - #1 (1 wk)
May 98 - ray of light - #2
Sep 98 - drowned world/substitute for love - #10
Dec 98 - the power of good-bye/little star - #6
Mar 99 - nothing really matters - #7
Jun 99 - beautiful stranger - #2
+ Mar 00 - american pie - #1 (1 wk)
+ Sep 00 - music - #1 (1 wk)
Dec 00 - don't tell me - #4
Apr 01 - what it feels like for a girl - #7
Nov 02 - die another day - #3
Apr 03 - american life (import) - #57
Apr 03 - american life - #2
Jul 03 - hollywood - #2
Nov 03 - me against the music [Britney Spears feat Madonna] - #2
Dec 03 - love profusion - #11
+ Nov 05 - hung up - #1 (3+ weeks)


Albums

Feb 84 - madonna/the first album - #6
+ Nov 84 - like a virgin - #1
+ Jul 86 - true blue - #1
Nov 87 - you can dance - #5
+ Apr 89 - like a prayer - #1
Jun 90 - i'm breathless - #2
+ Nov 90 - the immaculate collection - #1
Oct 92 - erotica - #2
Nov 94 - bedtime stories - #2
Nov 95 - something to remember - #3
+ Nov 96 - evita (film soundtrack) - #1
+ Mar 98 - ray of light - #1
+ Sep 00 - music - #1
Nov 01 - ghv2: greatest hits volume 2 - #2
+ May 03 - american life - #1
+ Nov 05 - confessions on a dancefloor - #1

unskinny bop - new year's eve

I don't know about you but i already know where i'm spending my new year's eve.
Of course: Unskinny Bop at the Pleasure Unit in Bethnal Green.
Do read the manifesto - they're quite cool.

This is a monthly party organised by 2 or 3 girls who like like Jack Osbourne which motto is "disco dancing opportunities for girls, gays and misfits". How much better can life get? Where else can you dance to M.I.A, L7, Britney Spears, Suede, Girls Aloud, Bis, Breeders, Morrissey, B-52s, Dolly Parton, etc? It's a mish mash of cool and trash.

The photo is from Dolly-themed February's party.

P.S. You, people I know, who are thinking of coming to London for NYE, make up your minds as tickets have to be bought in advance.

my xmas shopping list for myself

This Christmas will be spent as usual with family in Alentejo at my grandparents'.
I shall be arriving in Lisbon on the 20th of December and leaving on the 27th.

Before Xmas I am planning a shopping spree. Spending sterling pounds in a euro country is always a feel good booster.

I already have a cultural shopping list (probably for Fnac in Chiado). If any of my so-called friends doesn't know what to get me for Christmas (and don't give me that "i'm not going to give presents to anyone this year" bullshit) here is a small list:

CDs
Clã - vivo
Cristina Branco - ulisses
Mafalda Arnauth - diário
Kátia Guerreiro - tudo ou nada

DVDs
O Fantasma - João Pedro Rodrigues
Filha da Mãe - João Canijo
Tarde Demais - José Nascimento
Tráfico - João Botelho

Books
José Saramago - as intermitências da morte
Cecília Calado - às duas por três

Feel free to recommend Portuguese cultural stuff I should know of.
[no mentions to utterly unfunny "Gato Fedorento" please]

+ madonna

Confessions on a dancefloor has entered the Portuguese albums chart at #1. It seems the album is #1 everywhere.

[Well except in Ireland as my friend Tom explained to me this afternoon - Mario Rosenstock is #1 there. Mario Rosenstock is an impressionist that created spoof songs delivered in Jose Mourinho's voice. Just wait a few more weeks for the album to be #1 in Portugal too.]

She has even topped the US albums chart, where Carrie Underwood (Pop Idol kind of sub-product) was expected to debut at the top.

In the UK the album apparently is going to spend a second week at #1 (therefore keeping the dull dull dull Will Young's third album in #2).
"Hung up" will spend a third week in #1 in the singles chart.

Isn't she fab? (rhetorical question)

new flat

Susana, Luis and I have found a new flat just off Brick Lane.
This was almost a week ago and the bloody agency is still checking references for the 3 of us (financial, personal, current landlord, and work references).

Hopefully tomorrow we'll have the confirmation that we are able to move into our new flat in Equity Square. What a lovely name for a square.

o fado pt 3 - me

Mariza's concert made me think why back in Portugal neither my friends nor I were that much into fado. Not even a little actually. We never cared about it.

Mariza started to sing fado with 6 years old. I think that those who don't sing and breathe fado from an early age only learn to enjoy it when they are more mature. It is music for those who have experienced at some level the kind of suffering most of fado lyrics talk about.

As I reach my 30s I am not only enjoying good fado a lot, I am also starting to feel that this important cultural reference should never have been absent from my life. How have I survived without it?

Have I been away from home for such a long time that this longing feeling is more present than ever.

In any case, these are lyrics from some of the most important Portuguese poets and writers in songs sung by magnificent Portuguese voices with music by the most talented Portuguese musicians.

This makes me get to the point I can say I am actually proud of being Portuguese. Not in a nationalist kind of way, but how else would I be able to fully understand what is behind all these concepts of fado, saudade, all this eternal longing and melancholy.

o fado pt 2 - mariza at the barbican

Barbican Centre, London.
November 2nd, 2005
Mariza live.

I can only say it was the best concert of the year so far and one of the best I have ever experienced.
Mariza has overcome the barrier that divides singers from true artists. I have been appreciating her art for a long time, her three albums are an excellent sample of what has been going on with fado after Amalia's death in 1999. There is a big mix of new and old composers, new and old instruments, and new and old fado. It is in fact very alive.

The show at the Barbican had everything, it was very complete. Mariza is an entertainer as well as the container of that voice and soul. She is witty even if not speaking in her mother tongue, she kept everyone laughing and smiling throughout. Her voice brought tears of joy and sadness to whoever is listening. And she respects the public - we want an encore she does it. We want another one, she asks what songs to sing, we tell her, and she plays them. We want another one and she does it again.

At one time, she sang Fado da Mouraria with no microphone or sound system. The guitar, bass and Portuguese guitar men with one foot on top of a chair in the middle of the stage, and her voice powerful enough to reach everyone in the room. It was unforgettable.

Even without understanding a word she is singing, she is widely appreciated in London. Most of the audience were in fact Brits.

I wish therefore to state in writing that Mariza is a true artist.

o fado

"Fatima Futebol e Fado" are the 3 FF that represent the Portuguese Holy Trinity.

Fatima: where the Holy Virgin came to the little shepherds and gave them enlightenment or something like it. This is now a pilgrimage location where people spend days walking on their knees to pay for some promise they did to the Lord. It's indeed a quite sickening and morbid place.

Football: no Portuguese could ever be a good family man without liking football and making his children (especially the boys) members of some football club as soon as they are born.

The third F is the one I want to talk about. Fado.

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A quick Wikipedia article on Fado can be found by clicking here from which I copy and paste a few lines.

Fado is a type of folk music which most likely originated in the 1820s in Portugal. It is characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor. The music is usually linked to the Portuguese word saudade (a word with no accurate equivalent in English; being a type of longing, it conveys a complex mixture of sadness, pain, nostalgia, happiness and love), and its origins are probably from a mixture of African slave rhythms with traditional music of Portuguese sailors, with Arabic influence. Some theories say it was derived from Brazilian music styles like Lundum and Modinha.

There are two varieties of Fado: Lisbon and Coimbra. The Lisbon style is the popular, while the Coimbra's is the refined style; both are seen as ethnic music for sophisticated audience.

The first great fado singer that is still known was Maria Severa, living in the first half of the 19th century. Her type of fado is today called "Lisbon's fado".

In the 1920s and 1930s, a series of fado de Coimbra (a highly stylized version born in Coimbra) recordings were very popular. Guitarists Carlos Paredes and his father Artur Paredes, were the masters and the great pioneers of this genre and the Portuguese guitar.

Amália Rodrigues introduced the most well-known variety of fado. After her disappearance, a new wave of performers added stylistic changes and brought more international popularity to the traditional Portuguese music. There are also some successful experiences with fado, namely mixing it with electronic music. Mariza, Mísia and Ana Moura brought with them a new look to the traditional song, occasionally reviving 19th century fado. While Dulce Pontes mixed it with popular and traditional Portuguese music. Madredeus and Cristina Branco added with new instruments and themes - all that they kept from the original Fado is its looks and the concept of "saudade". The Fado is almost universally sorrowful; although some can also be joyful songs.

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I shall be dwelling on fado on the next 2 or 3 posts.

confessions

While I prepare my blog about Fado here goes another small post about Madonna.

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The album is brilliant. A definite grower and one of her best so far. Next singles will be Sorry and Jump but there are other tracks such as Get Together, How High and I Love New York that also make me rock (well, dance) my socks off.

Hung Up sold 105,000 copies last week and it is going to be #1 again this week.

Confessions on a Dancefloor sold 70,000 copies on Monday and it is going to be #1 too.