Barely two years have passed since Salvador Sobral gave Portugal its first ever Eurovision Song Contest win. The month was May and the year 2017, and with the song Amar Pelos Dois, written by his sister, Salvador Sobral captivated the European public and the contest jury, winning the highest points score ever recorded in the history of the festival.
The following year, after undergoing a heart transplant, he returned to the Eurovision stage, this time in Lisbon, with none other than his idol and greatest musical reference, the Brazilian singer Caetano Veloso. A year after his operation, Salvador Sobral has a new album coming out soon and is preparing to embark on a European tour, but not before coming to Macau, at the invitation of The Script Road-Macau Literary Festival, to present his second album, Paris-Lisboa.
The album gained its title because “the realization of this album, the composition plus the preparation, even the design of the album, was all done between Paris and Lisbon,” the musician says in an interview with our sister publication Ponto Final over the phone from Portugal. “Even when I was not there, emotionally I was a little there. When I was not there physically, my soul was there,” he shares.
In what will be his second album, after his debut album Excuse Me, released in March 2016, Sobral once again ventures into the realm of lyric composition, in addition to singing songs written by his sister, Luísa Sobral, by pianist Júlio Resende and Joel Silva, the producer of Paris-Lisboa.
“I don’t really like making albums, but it has to be done. I like to play live, live the moment on stage,” he jokes, in his unconventional style.
In Macau, Salvador will perform in concert at the Venetian Theatre, on March 17, during The Script Road. Joining him from Portugal will be pianist Júlio Resende, bass player André Rosinha and drummer Bruno Pedroso. The show will include songs from Paris-Lisboa, which will be released later on March 29, some older material, as well as “a little bit from a third album to come” and, perhaps, something in Chinese.
“Wherever I go I always sing a song from the place. I would really enjoy singing a song from there [Macau] too,” says the musician in the lead up to his first trip to Macau, and also to Asia. “I would like to be able to experience Macau as someone from there and not as a Portuguese person. I don’t want to go to Macau to eat pastéis de nata. I want to experience the place and its people to the maximum”.
Encouraging change
With a raised trophy on stage in Kiev, after the official announcement of the victory of Amar Pelos Dois at the Eurovision Song Contest, Salvador Sobral took advantage of the moment when the eyes of Europe were on him, to propose a change in the music scene.
“We live in a world of disposable music, ‘fast food’ music, without any content. Music is not fireworks, music is feeling. Let’s try to change that and bring music back to what really matters,” he said, on a stage where his song had not been expected to make it to the final, much less win, because it was not “festival-esque”.
So what has changed in the music scene since then?
“Nothing. It was very arrogant of me to think that I could change anything. That’s not how things change. The change is not in me, it has to be in the next generations, in the way people are educated, and then on the radios and in the channels that communicate music. If they communicated music with more content, we would all be richer, but that’s not the case,” he laments.
However, he doesn’t deny that Eurovision has opened stage doors that he could only have dreamed of before, and introduced him to an audience that would have otherwise remained unknown.
“Eurovision is always going to be allied with me and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. I accept it because it has also allowed me play everywhere and share my music with everyone. I’m grateful,” he confesses.
After the Contest and the fame it brought, the challenge was to shake off his image of the singer who won Eurovision and consolidate himself as a jazz musician.
“I think people already recognize me more as a musician rather than the Eurovision guy. But it’s obvious that Amar Pelos Dois will always be the song that people associate [with me] and that’s good because it’s a beautiful song.”
And it is there, in the concerts where people go to hear “that song” and end up staying for the rest, that the “small change” of Salvador Sobral is put into operation.
“People who are not used to listening to jazz and solos, initially go for Amar Pelos Dois , but end up staying for the rest and enjoying it. That’s what I’m talking about, making our change a small one. As long as I make the music I like, and feel that it has some content, I’m making the change in my own way – small”.
A Year of Renaissance
On December 8, 2018, Salvador Sobral released a video to mark what he called “the year of my rebirth”.
“It was an incredible year, it was a frighteningly fast recovery. It merits celebrating together because I received a lot of support from you,” he says, referring to the year since his heart transplant. A year ago, did he expect to be where he is today, about to start a European tour?
“Honestly no. I was still very weak, it was January, I was still wondering if I could get up and sit in a chair – that was my goal at the time,” he recalls. But then, “it all began to happen”.
17March
Venetian theatre
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The Script Road – Macau Literary Festival returns in March for its eighth edition, this year with a focus on the beautiful rhyme, rhythm and expression of poetry, and its ability to cross over and inspire other art forms like theatre, music, cinema and visual arts. The Script Road is inviting a number of renowned poets, particularly from China and Portuguese-speaking countries, to present engaging and informative workshops and discussion panels.
Rolling Puppets theatre group reflect on the work of
revolutionary writer Lu Xun
Born in 1977, Tong Chong has been an active figure in the local art scene, known for his works of painting, paper-cutting, wood sculpture and seal carving. Late last year he was commissioned to design the official poster for the 8th edition of The Script Road-Macau Literary Festival.
As this year’s The Script Road turns its focus to poetry and its broader relationship to the arts, two exhibitions of local artists will be presented that demonstrate this notion very well, one by Alexandre Marreiros, and the other by Crystal Chan. Crystal has been living in New York since 2015 and graduated from the School of Visual Arts. She had her first solo exhibition last year at Gallery 456 of The Chinese American Arts Council and is currently back home to participate in the Macau Literary Festival.
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