When Ramana Vieira talks about the late fado queen Amália Rodrigues, her brown eyes shine and her voice takes on a worshipful tone. But her star-struck affect doesn’t mean that Vieira feels constrained by Rodrigues’s sanctified status as the embodiment of the convention-bound Portuguese song form, with its anguished disquisitions on loss, heartache and the vicissitudes of fate

“It must seem like I think Amália Rodrigues is Lady Gaga,” says Vieira, who performs Friday at La Peña. “In my world, she’s this huge entity. It’s been interesting, knowing the legacy that she left us, and trying to live up to that in this time and place.”

An American counterpart to the dazzling parade of Portuguese fadistas who have reinvigorated a tradition that was already moribund years before Rodrigues’ death in 1999, Vieira has become a leading force in spreading awareness of fado in the United States, building on the international buzz generated by stars like Misia, Dulce Pontes, Cristina Branco, Ana Moura and Mariza. … Continue reading »