Ana Bacalhau

Portuguese vocalist Ana Bacalhau first rose to prominence through her work as the vibrant, witty, and commanding frontwoman of Deolinda, the Lisbon-based neo-fado collective whose topical songs have earned multiple platinum certifications. Her warm, buoyant alto delivers the sharply observed lyrics of band songwriter and guitarist Pedro Da Silva Martins—lines that address Portugal’s historical, economic, political, and social conditions—with precision, conviction, elegance, and impeccable phrasing. In 2017 she stepped outside the group to issue her first solo album, the charting Nome Próprio, whose material had been written expressly for her by leading Portuguese songwriters of the period; the collection reflects her affinity for doo wop, new wave, vintage pop, fado, cabaret, chanson, blues, and indie rock. While remaining active with Deolinda, she has continued to place charting singles such as “Ciúme” and “Leve Como Uma Pena” and has toured with her own ensemble, which features her husband, double bassist José Pedro Leitão, himself a Deolinda member.

Born in Lisbon in 1978, Bacalhau began playing guitar and singing at fifteen. She became lead singer of the “punk fado” outfit Lupanar in 2001 and appeared on the group’s 2005 debut album Abertura, on which Leitão also performed. After completing degrees in Modern Languages and Literatures in Portuguese and English, she obtained a postgraduate qualification in library science and briefly served as an archivist for Portugal’s Ministry of Finance. Following Lupanar’s dissolution, she and Leitão formed the short-lived barroom trio Tricotismo, which specialized in jazz, fado, and blues standards. In late 2006 the pair joined guitarist Pedro da Silva Martins and his multi-instrumentalist brother Luís José Martin to found Deolinda, a name taken from a fictional Lisbon resident who watches the city from her apartment window and wryly comments on its virtues and shortcomings; Martins had initially written only two songs about the character, yet audience demand prompted an entire repertoire.

Deolinda’s first album, 2008’s Canção Ao Lado, reached double-platinum status, and the band quickly sold out venues across Portugal and neighboring countries. The follow-up, 2010’s multi-platinum Dois Selos E Um Carimbo on Universal EMI, brought European and American tours that were captured on the 2011 live set No Coliseu Dos Recreios. In 2013 Bacalhau joined twenty-four other vocalists—including Concha Buika, Bebel Gilberto, and Rokia Traoré—on the United Nations charity single “One Woman,” a recording created to support women’s rights advocacy. After Deolinda issued Outras Histórias in 2016, she signed a solo contract with Universal Portugal. Co-producing Nome Próprio with João Bessa, she recruited songs from established writers, many of them veterans of Portugal’s My Song Festivals, among them Jorge Cruz and Miguel Araújo; she supplied lyrics for “Só Eu” and “Menina Rabina” and both music and lyrics for “Deixo-Me Ir.” The album entered the Portuguese pop charts upon its late-2017 release and was certified gold. She subsequently balanced solo dates with further Deolinda activity.

In 2018 Bacalhau partnered with an educational publisher on the gender-equality textbook Desafiar Estereotipos and contributed the song “Pensamos no Futuro Amanha” to the soundtrack of the Portuguese television series 1986. The next year she appeared with Abe Rábade on Guadi Galego’s single “Matriarcas. Brilhantes Activistas” from the album Immersion and released her own duet single “O Erro Mais Bonito” with singer-songwriter Diogo Piçarra. She also participated in the children’s-song collection Canções de Roda: Lenga Lengas e Outras que Tais alongside Vitorino, Sérgio Godinho, Jorge Benvinda, and Cláudia Guerreiro; the quartet performed the program with orchestra in January 2020.