Biography
Docemania updates the catalog of Doce, the Lisbon-based quartet that dominated Portuguese pop in the first half of the 1980s, by recasting their songs for a modern children’s audience. The group formed in 1979 with vocalists Laura Diogo, Lena Coelho, Fátima Padinha, and Teresa Miguel; the last two singers had already performed together in the quartet Gemini, which had carried Portugal to the 1978 Eurovision Song Contest and issued several late-’70s albums. Sharing Gemini’s Eurovision ambitions, Doce entered the Festival RTP da Canção three consecutive years. Their 1980 entry “Doce” placed second, “Ali-Bábá” finished fourth in 1981, and “Bem Bom” finally won the national final in 1982, sending the quartet to that year’s Eurovision Song Contest, where they placed thirteenth. Between 1980 and 1984 the group issued the Polygram albums OK, KO (1980) and É Demais (1981) along with a string of singles. After Doce disbanded in the mid-’80s, retrospective collections appeared, among them Doce 1979-1987 (1986) and Docemania (2003). The 2003 set reached the Portuguese Top Ten, reviving widespread interest in the original band. Capitalizing on that resurgence, Universal Music issued a new album titled Docemania in 2006. Distinct from the earlier compilation that shares its name, the 2006 release features re-recorded versions of Doce’s best-known tracks aimed at young listeners and climbed to number five; the follow-up, 2+2 (2008), matched that chart success.
Albums
