Celebrations of the 100 years of José Afonso will have “strong popular support”

“ Qwe hope that the celebrations are of a strong popular nature, with the ability to trigger the initiative of the different scales of the associative world, regardless of whether we can articulate at institutional level. ... It is the popular character that José Afonso loved, to move in these popular media ", explained to the agency Lusa historian João Madeira, of AJA.

The “Manifesto 100 years of José Afonso”, to be presented today in Lisbon, is signed by more than a hundred Portuguese personalities, music, cinema, theater, journalism, research and civil society and remains open for further subscriptions.

Luís Cília, Baila No, Sérgio Godinho, Capicua, Luca Algiers, Manuela Azevedo — all in the music field — as well as journalists Adelino Gomes and Joaquim Furtado, the April captains Vasco Lourenço and Jorge Aires, researcher Irene Flunser Pimentel and musicologist Rui Vieira Nery are among the first signatories.

In the manifesto one can read that there is a desire not only to celebrate “the creativity and the lasting impact” of José Afonso’s work, but also “the civic example, made of coherence, modesty and persistence, and his search for a more free, fairer and more supportive society”.

“It’s a symbolic moment, a first initiative in the celebrations and the manifesto is a declaration of intentions, of what can be done,” João Madeira explained.

In the context of the celebration of the centennial, AJA wants to begin a new process of classification of the phonographic work of José Afonso, since the previous one was filed in 2025 by the Museums and Monuments of Portugal, for lack of “physical access to the goods to be classified”.

“We have not received an answer to the objection. What moves us is to emphasize the work of Zeca Afonso ", highlighted João Madeira.

Among other initiatives to be developed, after establishing partnerships, are concerts, exhibitions, tertulias, the publication or reissue of editorial projects and the collection and preservation of documentation and testimonies related to José Afonso.

“ José Afonso's work is a fundamental cultural heritage, living part of our collective imagination, popular belonging, whose appreciation and recognition by the public authorities we consider essential ", says the association.

“Singer, poet and citizen deeply attentive to his time”, José Afonso was born in Aveiro, on August 2, 1929.

He began singing as a student in Coimbra, having recorded the first records in the early 1950s with fados from Coimbra, but throughout his career he became known, above all, for the civic intervention songs against the dictatorial regime.

The complete work of José Afonso began to be reissued in 2021, in an initiative of the family with the publisher More 5, making available in new formats albums such as “Cantigas do Maio” (1971), “Come More Five” (1973) and “Couro dos Tribunalis” (1974), as well as the concert “Ao Vivo no Colosseum” (1983).

Author of “Grândola, Vila Morena”, one of the songs chosen for the password of the advance of troops, in the Revolution of April 25, 1974, José Afonso died on February 23, 1987, in Setúbal, of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Almost 40 years after the death of José Afonso, João Madeira highlights the current thought and musical work of the singer, who placed himself “in the plan of cultural intervention, civic intervention in the face of the great problems of the contemporary world”.

“ These are problems that have the same root, a certain position against the prepotency, inequalities, in defense of the peace of the world and that make every sense these days. The expressions of cultural nature today may be different, but we also realize that there is a legacy that establishes a thread of continuity between what was reality in ancient times and the reality that is today,” he said.

The “Manifesto 100 years of José Afonso” will be presented today at Casa Capitão, in Lisbon, and will feature performances by Ana Lua Caiano and Couple Coffee.

The José Afonso Association, which is presented as a “cultural and civic association, non-confessional”, was formalized in November 1987, a few months after the singer’s death, in order to preserve “the memory and example” of José Afonso.