‘I don’t remember my first words, but I remember my first fado song,’ says Portuguese singer Mariza. ‘I’ve sung fado since I was five years old growing up among traditional singers and musicians. It’s natural to me, like breathing. I don’t have to think.’ She became famous in the early 2000s for singing this form of Portuguese folk that originated among the 19th-century working class of Lisbon, but Mariza has developed a style all her own. 

Singing a blend of traditional and new songs, her musical style weaves gospel, soul and jazz together to create a thoroughly modern brand of fado. ‘Like all urban music, fado grows and develops,’ she insists. ‘These days we have a fado that speaks about this new Lisbon, this new generation, this new world. It’s about keeping the roots, but also bringing the modernity of the days in which we are living.’

Over a decade after she last performed in Edinburgh, Mariza is finally returning for one-night-only. ‘Playing in Edinburgh last time was an amazing experience. I’m really happy to have a chance to show what I’ve been doing in the past years,’ she says enthusiastically. With three new chart-topping albums under her belt, Mariza has a lot to show. ‘More and more people now come to see me rather than to see fado. I think it’s amazing.’ But while she welcomes being seen as an artist in her own right, she always stays true to her roots, and with this upcoming concert she hopes that her music will transport audiences to Portugal. ‘I want to help them imagine the culture and the people. It’s a very sensorial experience.'

Despite the genre’s specific cultural background, Mariza extols its universality and ability to touch people around the world. ‘Fado is very emotional music. It talks about the feelings of life, and those feelings are common to all people. We all know about jealousy and lost love, and about happiness.’ For Mariza, it is the music which conveys these things, not the lyrics. ‘It’s about heart, about feeling yourself inside of the melody, inside of the sound of Portuguese guitar. Even if you don’t speak the language, it’s very magical.’

It is that very universality which allowed Mariza to develop this individual take on fado, drawing inspiration from everything around her including a multicultural childhood. ‘I was born in Africa and my mom is African, but she had a very open mind about music. She was the one who introduced me to Brazilian music, African music, American music, to Nina Simone and Frank Sinatra. That open mentality helped me to see that fado was not untouchable but something to which I could bring my soul.’

Mariza, Festival Theatre, 15 August, 8pm.