Well, not exactly, but I rather enjoyed playing with the Cotonete headline. The article goes on to further elucidate what the great and the good of the Portuguese music scene are up to, in the next few months.

- Camané is this evening playing in Luxemburg
- Deolinda are playing in Glasgow, Scotland in a BBC concert, then move on to Paris.
- The fadista Ana Moura will be performing in Canada, Germany, and New York City and Los Angeles in the USA
- Unlike last year, Buraka Som Sistema have decided to take it easy and just play New York City in April
- Marizia is playing England, Ireland and Turkey in February. in March, she's going to Germany, Austria and Holland.
- :papercutz are playing South By Southwest, Texas in March.
- The lisboetas Klepht are not traveling, however, except to record their next record in the USA

Source: Cotonete

It's nothing if not an ambitious project: produce a comprehensive printed encyclopedia of Portuguese music in the 20th Century. But such a work has now been published, and was recently launched at Teatro S. Carlos in Lisboa.

The work, entitled "Enciclopédia da Música em Portugal no século XX" represents "a labour of love" over 13 years under the direction of ethnomusicologist Salwa Castelo-Branco. The book covers pop-rock, fado, jazz, and both popular and "erudite" music. To ensure the gravity of each entry, works were considered for a period of three years before inclusion.

The encyclopedia is published in four volumes of approximately 15,000 pages, and contains 1250 entries related to musical genres, artists, composers, writers, instruments, institutes and schools, among others. The last volume contains artists from the 1990s.

Source: SIC News

It's the end of the year, so it must be time for the publication of the year end "best of" lists!

Cotonete have published a list of the top Portuguese national albums of 2009, as listened to on their site. They note, that six of the ten are debut albums, making it a strong year for new talent.

The list, in full:

1. OqueStrada - Tasca Beat
2. Carminho - Fado
3. Teratron - Teratron
4. Legendary Tiger Man - Femina
5. Cristina Branco - Kronos
6. Norberto Lobo - Pata Lenta
7. Diabo na Cruz - Virou
(tie)Aquaparque - É Isso Aí
9. Micro Audio Waves - Zoetrope
10. Virgem Suta - Virgem Suta

Sound + Vision have also published their version of the list, with more of an emphasis on releases slightly outside the mainstream. Their list reads as follows:

1. B Fachada, B Fachada
2. António Pinho Vargas, Solo II
3. Três Cantos, Três Cantos ao Vivo
4. Real Combo Lisbonense, Real Combo Lisbonense EP
5. Os Quais, Meio Disco
6. Fernando Ribeiro, Desiderata – A Junção do Bem
7. Tiago Sousa, Insónia
8. Bernardo Sassetti, Um Amor de Perdição
9. Micro Audio Waves, Zoetrope
10. Samuel Úria, Nem Lhe Tocava

Readers of Portuguese music magazine BLITZ have been participating in a vote to determine the "30 ultimate Portuguese songs of the last five decades." To reflect the vote, BLITZ have now put together a page detailing videos of some of those songs.

The list includes everything from José Afonso to Linda Martini and Rui Veloso. If you'd like to have a look and a listen, visit the winner's page here.

How is that for an incendiary headline? I confess, this might be a quote from an interview, taken out of context. Next on the agenda is an attempt to translate from the interview itself...

According to Blitz Magazine:

After the album Amália Today, Sónia Tavares (of The Gift) confessed: "I'm still not a fan of fado."

In an interview with Bairro Alto, (RTP2 programme), the singer spoke of the success of the album Amália Today and the future of The Gift.

In the interview conducted by José Fialho Gouveia, broadcast last night, the singer spoke about the future of The Gift as the members being "anxious" to start writing a new album, and she confessed that even after giving voice to several Amalia Rodrigues songs, she still continued to not like fado, because she thought this style of music boring.

If you'd like to watch the interview, there is a link here.

Source: Blitz

Noiserv are to visit the UK for the first time beginning next week, with a mini tour taking in cities in Scotland and England, including a gig on the 13th of November at The Angel, in London.

Noiserv's debut album One Hundred Miles From Thoughtlessness (Merzbau) was released this past October. Noiserv is David Santos, who creates melodic melancholia with vocal, electronics and a host of effects. His music runs the gamut from singer-songwriter contemplations to Depeche Mode electronica-fests. You can get the full equipment list and a bit more biography on the MySpace.

They have quite a lovely official website published in both English and Portuguese, composed of sweet line drawings and some clever interactive soundscapes. Have a look here.

The Boy George interview with Jonathan Ross was just broadcast here in the UK, and at the end of the interview (a quite fascinating detailing of his prison stint), Boy George promoted his upcoming single "Amazing Grace". The single will include a vocal contribution by the fado singer Ana Lains.

According to the website BoyGeorgeUK.com, it appears that Lains' vocals will be integrated with George's on the single. Visit BoyGoergeUK.com if you'd like to hear a sample of the track.

To learn more about Ana Lains, visit her MySpace.