António Variations was born there 72 years and continues to be an icon of Portuguese music – Journal Hardmusica

The singer and songwriter who renewed the light music portuguesa was born there 72 years. António Variations only received one reward, the one of the most poorly dressed of Portugal. This icon of Portuguese music is only to be remembered from two years ago here.

António Variations, a figure different from the ordinary, was the target of many looks discrete and prying in the window of the first hairdressing salon unisex in the Country, Isabel Queirós of the Valley. There was António Rodrigues, who had served with great professionalism the art of the barber, because I never wanted to be called a hairdresser.

Born in the place of the Pillar (Amares, Braga), according to its own “too early” .

António Rodrigues made a deal “scissors wins to the music“. And later came out of the salon Isabel Queiroz do Vale to open his own space. At that time still Variations was not very well known, because only at the beginning of the '80s that became the icon of Portuguese music and became the only António Variations, letting it fall to the Rodrigues. “Variations is a word that suggests elasticity, freedom. And that is exactly what I am and what I do in the field of music. What corner is heterogeneous,” explained the artist.

Antonio was a singer and composer inimitable that renewed the light music of the Portuguese and marked indelibly the history of mentalities of the country with your voice. With a tone of surprising, large-amplitude, full of fado, combining originally the folklore with the sounds of cosmopolitan – the rock, the pop, the blues; a musical genre is difficult to classify, as its described when referring to that was something “between the Braga Cathedral and New York city“.

A songwriter with powerful lyrics where vincava the record of his observation of everyday life and his life of immense loneliness. A Man with a power overwhelming into a body, which exteriorizava his extraordinary side of the performer, with single image, with a costume of its own, having become an artist even before the be.

Was by his “heresy“, a classification that was obtained by many, that arises in the music industry, in June 1982, after some appearances on Radio Renaissance, in the programme “Half a Rock” and on Television in the program “the Ride of The Merry”, by Júlio Isidro.

there Were four years with the label Valentim de Carvalho, which launched themes such as the version of, at the time, the great Diva Amália Rodrigues, the “People who Wash in the River”. It was immediately labeled by the public and by the criticism as “heresy”. On the B side of the vinyl that came the single “I Am Beyond”.

Contaminated by the Aids virus, António Variations still was to receive in November 1983, the only reward that had been offered to him in life: one of the most poorly dressed of Portugal. He received the award, not without challenging the ability of the jury to evaluate the styles of well-dressing: “style me!“.

In 1984, publishes the first LP, titled “guardian Angel”, which included the big hits “The body is what you pay for” and “Is it p’ra tomorrow.” With this work turned out to ‘tame the beasts’ previously criticized.

That same year he was ‘thrown’ to a hospital bed, but was not forgotten. It was at this time that comes up on the radio one of his hits, “Song of the trailer”.

António Joaquim Rodrigues Ribeiro was born on the day December 03, 1944 in the town of Pilar, the Municipality of Amraes. Died on the 13th day of June 1984, in Lisbon.

There is now a tribute to the theatrical to the artist in the Tent of Chapitô. One titled “Variations on Antonio”, interpreted by jonathan Paria and performed by Vicente Alves do Ó.