Did you hear a fado in “Amsterdam”? This is Mariana Bandhold, the Portuguese who sings fado in the Hollywood movie

Did you hear a fado in “Amsterdam”? This is Mariana Bandhold, the Portuguese who sings fado in the Hollywood movie
Did you hear a fado in “Amsterdam”? This is Mariana Bandhold, the Portuguese who sings fado in the Hollywood movie
-

Singer Mariana Bandhold has lived in Los Angeles for ten years and had the opportunity to sing Amália’s fado in the film starring Christian Bale

The action takes place in the 1930s. In Europe, fascism is already a reality. In the United States, a group of fascist sympathizers wants to remove Franklin D. Roosevelt from the White House. An unorthodox doctor (played by Christian Bale), a lawyer (John David Washington) and a nurse (Margot Robbie) are caught in the middle of the political conspiracy. The three are embracing, in one of the climax scenes of the movie “Amsterdam”, at a meeting of veterans of the First World War, when on stage a singer begins to sing fado.

“Fado was born one day

When the wind barely boils

And the sky the sea prolonged

On the side of a sailboat

in a sailor’s chest

Who, being sad, sang”

It is “Portuguese Fado”, music by Alain Oulman, lyrics by José Régio, recorded by Amália Rodrigues in 1965.

But the voice heard in the film is not Amália’s, it is Mariana Bandhold’s, a 27-year-old Portuguese singer.

“I still can’t believe this happened,” Mariana Bandhold wrote on her Instagram when the film premiered around the world, revealing the secret she had been keeping for months. “This is the first time I’ve done something like this, and having the opportunity to do it while honoring my country brings me to tears just thinking about it. I know for some people this is a small accomplishment. But for For me this is huge. I love my culture, I love where I come from and being able to pay tribute to my country with classical Portuguese music by one of the most beloved Portuguese artists is something that doesn’t happen very often. This was an extraordinary moment for me. “

Mariana Bandhold has lived in the United States for ten years. So when we talk on the phone, she apologizes for resorting to English words so often. The two languages ​​mix in her sweet voice, but something is perfectly understandable: Mariana is truly happy. “Nobody knows I’m singing, my name appears at the end but nobody sees. But that doesn’t matter. What’s important is that I did this. When I went to see the movie, I was so nervous. I’ve never been so nervous in my life. I don’t even remember what happens in the movie, before and after. It was a huge emotion”, he tells CNN Portugal.

But how did this opportunity to participate in a film directed by David O’Russell, the same director of “American Coup” and “Joy” come about?

Mariana Bandhold grew up among music, in the Cascais area. Her mother, Portuguese, was a professional singer and her father, American, was a dancer. “They met at Casino Estoril, my mother used to sing there and my father was a dancer for Disney and was here to present a show.” As a child, she was always singing. And she remembers that, at the age of seven, she sang for the first time for her family. “They applauded and were so happy. It was such a good feeling, I decided right away that I wanted to continue having that in my life.”

But in fact the music only became more important “for a deeper reason”. When she was 10 years old, Mariana’s father died in the war in Afghanistan and she fell into depression. “For two months, I listened non-stop to the song ‘Mamma’ by Il Divo. I listened to it over and over again, over and over. After two months, it wasn’t that I was cured, but I was a child who had managed to accept it”, she says. . “I thought, if this song can do this to me, maybe I can do the same to other people.”

It was at this point that music became a more concrete objective. At the age of 12, she played the role of Louisa von Trapp in the show “Música no Coração”, by Filipe La Féria, which was on stage at the Teatro Politeama, in Lisbon. Afterwards, she participated with her mother in the television show “Family Superstar”. And starting in her teens, she started trying to participate in other talent shows: “I think I auditioned for all the shows,” she recalls. But in the end, the answer was always ‘no’.

Until, finally, in 2014, he heard a ‘yes’: he participated in the second edition of “The Voice Portugal”, in Mickael Carreira’s team. She was a semi-finalist, but was eliminated at the live galas.

Meanwhile, while participating in the contest, Mariana Bandhold was applying to the American Music and Drama Academy, a performing arts school in Los Angeles, California, USA. “I did the audition, by video, on a day when I was very sick and it went really bad. I knew that with that audition I wouldn’t be able to get in. So when the video of my participation in The Voice appeared on YouTube I sent them the video to ask: listen, this is how my voice sounds when I’m not sick.” It was a shot in the dark. And I had to wait a few months for an answer: “The day after I was eliminated from The Voice, I was very sad, not knowing what to do, and I received the information that I had been accepted at school”.

Mariana packed her bags and moved to the United States. “It was a little scary but I really wanted to go to that school and I also needed to start over. Even though I really like my family, I felt like I needed to change, that I still hadn’t found a place where I could be myself. that needed to be resuscitated,” he explains.

He studied music and acting. From one of the windows of the school he could see the iconic sign with the word Hollywood, from another he could see the building of the publishing house Capital Records. “This is really a fantastic place. Everyone who comes here comes looking for success. It’s a huge challenge,” she says. Mariana’s integration into the “land of dreams” was not immediate, but little by little, she found her place and her people.

An important moment was when he met Brecn, who is currently his best friend. “He is a musician and an extraordinary composer, connected to electronic music, and we started writing together. I had never done anything in this area. On The Voice, I used to sing songs by Céline Dion, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey. it’s very common to hear these kinds of voices. But it was a perfect ‘match'”, she says, enthused. The duo Brecnmari currently has eleven songs available on Spotify. “We’ve already done a few concerts, but we’re still at the beginning.”

At the same time, Mariana is working on her solo project, entitled Mother Mars, an affectionate name with which friends started treating her during the pandemic. “I was always taking care of everyone, checking that everyone had food and blankets. I was the mommy of the group”, she says. The project is still in development, but it is already known that Mariana composes and interprets and that it will be something that combines R&B with ‘new age’.

And that’s what she was doing when one day, “out of nowhere”, she received an email from Encompass, a company that “hunts for musical talents” for the cinema and beyond. “They said they needed a girl singing in Portuguese, fado, for a movie. They asked me to send a ‘voice note’ singing that Amália theme and that, later, if they liked it, they would book an audition”, says Mariana Bandhold . She doesn’t usually perform fado. “I’ve always listened to fado and I really like it, but I don’t usually sing and I would never dare to sing one of Amália’s fado.” But she accepted the challenge: she made a small recording, sent it, and on the return mail received an invitation, not for an audition, but for a recording session. “Can you?”

“I wasn’t very nervous that day”, Mariana recalls. In fact, at that moment she didn’t really know what movie it was, she didn’t know it was a big production or that it would have stars like Christian Bale, Robert De Niro and Chris Rock. “I realized that initially they had thought about using Amália’s voice, but after filming they thought that the voice did not match the actress’s lips, that something there did not match, and they decided that it would be better to have another Portuguese singer”, she explains. . Mariana entered the studio and after two hours she had made her recording. “When I entered the régie, everyone was applauding and saying that it had gone very well. I had to run to the bathroom to cry because I couldn’t believe that what was happening to me, I was so happy!”

“It’s just a little bit and almost nobody knows it’s me, but for me this is really important”, he says. The film premiered a few weeks ago and the reviews haven’t been the best, but that doesn’t disturb Mariana Bandhold’s joy: “I believe that new opportunities may arise from here, who knows?”


The article is in Portuguese

Tags: hear fado Amsterdam Mariana Bandhold Portuguese sings fado Hollywood movie

-

-

PREV On BBB 24, brother discovers mystery suitcase prank and says that power is fake
NEXT Do you know who these children are? Discover the ‘cradle’ of this band in BH