“How can I make happy music?” That was the question that Pedro Simões, known as Pedro Mafama, asked himself when, at the age of 30, he was invaded by immense happiness. The one who precisely two years ago published by this river, debut album that elevated him to the top of the Portuguese alternative music scene. At that time, she went out with symbols of Portugal, dressed between the fields and rapper, he shamelessly crossed rhythms and genres, from fado to kizomba or hip-hop. And, above all, he showed dark songs full of drama (“I’m going to take something for the pain until I don’t feel it anymore”announced in “Algo Para a Dor”), not infrequently on the edge of the precipice (“I just want to lie down until they pick me up in a container”asked in “White City”).
“Suddenly my life began to change. I began to be a happier person ”, she reflects today. “Since Mafama is almost synonymous with heavy, melancholic, nocturnal music, how can I make happy music?”
“Way”, the first single of the new album, was the inaugural sample of this artistic renaissance. In the clip, published in March, the singer appears in a tavern surrounded by the Choral Group of the Aljustrel Mining Union. The music brings together Alentejo singing and gypsy electronic music, and the Mafama spice. Separate worlds that Mafama, as is her prerogative, took care to merge. “There were people saying: this is dance music, this is alcohol. In fact, it is a perfect bridge for what is to come, ”she announces. “Estrada” was just the declaration of intent for what is coming this Friday, May 26. I was in the abyss but I stepped forward It is the second album by the artist who wants to continue drinking from the inexhaustible source of popular culture, but to show that “Portuguese music is not only made of sadness, but also of joy and celebration.” Just like life.
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Source: Observadora
