Sérgio Godinho (PT)

About

Also known as: Sergio Godinho

Sérgio Godinho is one of Portugal's most influential singer songwriters, a figure who shaped the country's protest music tradition known as música de intervenção. He began recording in Paris in 1971, collaborating closely with fellow exile José Mário Branco, and his early albums Os Sobreviventes and Pré Histórias were repeatedly pulled from store shelves by the Estado Novo censors. He returned to Portugal after the Carnation Revolution of 1974 and released a string of albums that chronicled the country's shift toward democracy and, gradually, toward the textures of everyday life. Over the decades Godinho has kept reinventing his sound, moving through light jazz explorations on Salão de Festas and Na Vida Real before stepping into more modern territory with Tinta Permanente in 1993. His 1983 album Coincidências brought him into the studio with Milton Nascimento, Chico Buarque and Ivan Lins, and in the 1990s he was sharing stages with younger Portuguese acts like Da Weasel and Xutos & Pontapés members. Beyond music, he has worked as a stage and film actor and published both poetry and fiction.