Ercília Costa

(born: Costa da Caparica 3/August/1902; died Algés 16/November/1985) Prior to the mass popularisation of recorded music in Portugal, Ercília Costa was widely known as the ‘Warbler of Fado’ for her mournful, sonorous vibrato. Born in the Portuguese fishing parish of Costa de Caparica in 1902, Costa’s name became synonymous with Fado, a form of traditional music where melancholia and longing are often sung about, usually accompanied by Portuguese guitar. Costa toured Europe, Brazil and the US in the 1930s and 40s, and decidedly retired from music after appearing in the 1952 film Madragoa. Little of her oeuvre remains available today, but that’s certainly a failure of circumstance; Ercília Costa was the world’s first star of Fado, if not one of the first global music stars of the 20th century.