Dulce José Silva Pontes (; born 8 April 1969) is a
Portuguese songwriter and singer who performs in many musical styles, including pop, folk, and
classical music
Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...
. She is usually defined as a
world music
"World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...
artist. Her songs contributed to the 1990s revival of Portuguese urban
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
called
fado
Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado ...
.
Biography
Pontes was born in 1969 in
Montijo, a town in the
District of Setúbal, near
Lisbon
Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
.
She trained as a pianist, and started a career in singing after entering a competition in her hometown at the age of 18. She soon became an actress on Portuguese
television
Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
and
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...
.
[Biography](_blank)
listed on ''Portal do Fado'', (accessed December 22, 2014). In 1991, she won the national music festival with her song "
Lusitana paixão", (known in
English as "Tell Me"), which led her to represent Portugal at the
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...
. She finished 8th in the competition, which was at the time the third-best finish for a Portuguese performer.
Her interpretation of famous fado themes like "Lágrima" e "Estranha Forma de Vida", earned her in the press the name of "successor and heir to
Amália Rodrigues
Amália da Piedade Rebordão Rodrigues (23 July 1920 – 6 October 1999), known as simply Amália Rodrigues () or popularly as Amália, was a Portuguese fado singer (''fadista'').
Dubbed ''Rainha do Fado'' ("Queen of Fado"), she was instrumen ...
".
Dulce Pontes started her career as a mainstream pop artist, but over the years she has evolved to become a world music singer. She blends traditional fado with contemporary styles and searches out new forms of musical expression.
She introduced musical traditions of the
Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...
in her work, rediscovered many long forgotten popular tunes and found use for obsolete musical instruments. Her work is inspired and influenced not only by Iberian musical tradition, but also,
African,
Brazilian,
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
and
Bulgarian sounds. She sings mostly in her native
Portuguese.
Dulce Pontes has collaborated with
Cesária Évora,
Caetano Veloso
Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso (; born 7 August 1942) is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicália, which encompas ...
,
Marisa Monte
Marisa de Azevedo Monte (; born 1 July 1967) is a Brazilian singer, composer, instrumentalist, and producer of Brazilian popular music and samba. As of 2011, she had sold 10 million albums worldwide and has won numerous national and internat ...
,
Daniela Mercury,
Carlos Núñez,
the Chieftains
The Chieftains were a traditional Irish folk band formed in Dublin in 1962, by Paddy Moloney, Seán Potts and Michael Tubridy. Their sound, which is almost entirely instrumental and largely built around uilleann pipes, has become synonymous w ...
,
Kepa Junkera
Kepa Junkera Urraza (born 1965 in Bilbao, Basque Country (autonomous community), Euskadi, Spain) is a Basque people, Basque musician and composer. A master of the trikitixa, the diatonic accordion, he has recorded more than 10 albums. Allmusic ...
,
Eleftheria Arvanitaki">Allmusic ...
, George Dalaras">Eleftheria Arvanitaki">Allmusic ...