‘Challenge’ wants to be new Sing and Fado – Morning Post

‘Song to the Challenge’ want to be elevated to Intangible Heritage of Humanity.

After the Fado, in 2011, and Alentejo Sing, already this year, another Portuguese genre wants to get the recognition of Intangible Heritage of Humanity, awarded by the United Nations. The ‘Song to the Challenge’ want this distinction and the candidate is taking its first steps in Vila Verde.

“I am convinced that is a winning bid,” said Antonio Vilela, President of the local authority, the agency Lusa. The policy states that the songs “already crossing many generations” and are present in nearly all of Minho festivals, as well as in other regions of Portugal. Thus, the goal is that the process extends to the whole country to form “an application and a network of strong partners.”

The mentor of this process is Carlos Silva, the Idea Group Five, also of Vila Verde, which has promoted a concentration of ‘Song to the Challenge’ which brought together more than 30 artists. “Now we need to create a commission to take the reins of the application,” he says.

In the ‘Song to the Challenge’, artists act of improvisation and, as the name now suggests, these challenge themselves during the performances, with courts and rhymes, many of them quite bold, using some slang.

“It is a gift that comes to people,” concludes Lusa the singer Jorge Loureiro, one of the most popular artists of this genre.