Until April 25, 2024, BLITZ publishes a list of 50 songs that paved the way for the freedom achieved 50 years ago. These are songs that, during the Estado Novo, foreshadowed the change that occurred on April 25, 1974, and gave shape to a cultural revolution that long preceded the political revolution that put an end to the dictatorship. The texts are written by Luís Freitas Branco, author of “The Revolution Before the Revolution” (Zigurate, 2024), to be published this month, a book that documents the way in which Portuguese popular music opened the doors to the cultural, social and politician that triggered April 25, 1974. Every day, this list will ‘receive’ a new song.
17. ‘Menina dos Olhos Tristes’, by Adriano Correia de Oliveira (1968)
The song is cinematic: close-up of a disconsolate face, and the eternally absent lover, on the other side of the sea. Reinaldo Ferreira’s poem stages the odyssey of the little soldiers, who returned home in a pine box, rocked by the plaintive melody of José Afonso, who would make his own version of ‘Menina dos Olhos Tristes’ in 1969. But the complete scene of this tragedy is in the voice of Adriano Correia de Oliveira, melancholic and fearless in equal measure, an extraordinary interpreter and composer of an extensive discography who remains unjustly forgotten – Adriano Correia de Oliveira’s work has not been republished for almost 30 years and is unavailable on digital platforms.
Tags: Songs Announced #25th April Menina dos Olhos Tristes Adriano Correia Oliveira
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