Group of Portuguese migrants in London celebrates traditional singing

O amarilis choral group, formed by ten Portuguese women emigrated in London, will perform with a traditional repertoire at the London Jazz Festival on Sunday, the same day that Mariza will perform.

Created about a year ago, the group brings together women between the ages of 33 and 39, most of whom had no prior connection to music.

The founder and artistic director, Inês Loubet, told Lusa that she met the others informally in the British capital, but that they realized that they could use singing as a way to strengthen ties with the country of origin.

“ I wanted to do this many years ago, but I had to find the right people,” said Inês Loubet, who is an academic teacher at various British institutions and who edited an album in 2024 on his own.

The Amarílis assume themselves as a project to value the polyphonic singing of Portuguese women, a tradition that, according to Loubet, has received less visibility than the Alentejo song, mostly male.

The goal is to “give visibility to traditional Portuguese music” in the UK and create a vehicle for the Portuguese community living in the country to maintain a “link” to its roots.

“For me there was always this desire to bring the popular Portuguese song here”, said the singer, who lives in London since 2013 and is a founding member of the collective Sopa de Pedra, from Porto, created in 2011.

The repertoire of Amarílis includes adaptations of Alentejo cante, Azorean ballads, Madeira cantigas, themes of Trás-os-Montes and the singer Catarina Chitas, of the Beira Baixa region.

The selection seeks to highlight the feminine experience in traditional Portuguese music, an area where, according to the artistic director, the songs sung in the first person by women are scarce.

Among the themes are “Cantiga da Monda”, “Mondeiras Lindo Rancho”, “Already the Galos Sing” and “Lass of Nazareth”.

One of the ideas in progress is to develop repertoire inspired by the villages and regions of origin of the singers themselves, traveling the country through family stories.

Ana Bernardo grew up in Covilhã and recalls the harvests on her grandparents' farm, when the women sang while working.

“There was a strength and companionship that nobody said aloud, but that he felt, and I think it was in the singing that they met,” Lusa said.

Resuming this folklore in a foreign city, where she has lived for 15 years, alongside other women is, for Ana Bernardo, a way to claim her origins.

“And somehow I also feel that we are contributing so that this part of our culture does not get lost,” he said.

For the performance at the Southbank Centre, on Sunday afternoon, the group will accompany the voices with adufé, but, in the medium term, intends to integrate pandireta and bombo.

Some of the elements use Viana do Castelo scarves in live performances.

The name Amarilis was chosen as a flower that exists in Portugal and the United Kingdom and is easily pronounced in English.

In the future, Loubet admits to collaborating with Portuguese associations in the UK to create networks linking the diaspora and eventually promote the emergence of other choirs.