Biography
.png)
During 2020, the multi-faceted Ana Laíns celebrated 20 years of her career. The event was celebrated with a sold-out concert at Estoril Casino’s Black and Silver concert hall on the 31st of January, whose recording entered directly to the 1st place of national Top of sales in Portugal.
Over two decades, the singer has built a discreet career, away from the mainstream, but one which is unquestionably solid and self-sufficient. In Greece, she has been called “Diva of a Different Fado”, while in France, they dubbed her “a virtuoso of the stage”.
In Portugal, Ana Laíns likes to be known as a “painter of music” - with the colors of the country that is her great passion as her palette.
The year 1999, the year she becomes a professional singer, after winning the “Grande Noite do Fado” in Lisbon at Lisbon’s Coliseum, the most important Fado competition by that time.
She starts with Fado and Portuguese Traditional Music, but she goes further. In 2006, by releasing the first album “Sentidos”, she drew widespread attention in the Portuguese and international press. In Portugal they called her “a great revelation”, and the British publication “Songlines” singled out the disc for special commendation as a contemporary expression of Fado.
Her international projection meets new roots and development during 2009, when Boy George, an artist distinguished with awards such as the Grammy, Tony or Brit Awards, invited the singer for a duet at the song “Amazing Grace”, justifying his choice with Ana’s “sublime voice”.
In 2010, Ana’s 2nd album “QUATRO CAMINHOS”, with its unparalleled breadth of lyrical expression and emotional honesty, was reviewed widely in the international press. Holland’s “Jazzism” magazine mentions the “real World Music coming from Portugal”, and “VPro Gids” maga- zine, talks about Ana’s elegance and natural command of her voice. In Australia, the “Daily Planet” agreed, and highlighted her pure and powerful vocalisation.
In 2015, because of her work in promoting and performing traditional and emerging portuguese music, Ana served as ambassador for the “celebration of 8 centuries of Portuguese Language”. The finale of this was a sold-out closing concert at Lisbon’s prestigious Belém Cultural Center, featuring musical luminaries from eight portuguese-speaking countries, such as Ivan Lins, Aline Frazão and Paulo de Carvalho.
These celebrations are felt abroad, and give rise to a pedagogical tour of the United States, where the singer performs several concerts and workshops on Fado and the Portuguese language, in some of the most important North American universities. Success deserves a new invitation, and returns in 2016 for the prestigious “Lowell Folk Fest”, which considers Ana Laíns one of the best performances of the festival 2016 culminates with the invitation of the Portuguese Embassy in Ankara and the Camões Institute, for Ana Laíns to open the prestigious “Sefika Kutluer” festival in Ankara, Turkey, which earns him a return passport in 2017 for an artist residency at the Portuguese products show that took place at St. Register Istanbul.
At the end of 2017, “PORTUCALIS” was released, and the album earned the singer nominations in the categories of “Best Portuguese Singer 2017”, “Best Song 2017” and “Best Concert 2017”, for her performance at Casa da Música in Porto. It was also considered one of the top 10 albums of the year by the publications in Sweden and Spain. The Belgian magazine “Rootstime” said that at 38 years old, “Ana Laíns has categorically confirmed her identity and released her best album to date”. In the Netherlands, “Mixed World Music” referred to the singer as the personification of Portuguese identity. The album is a journey through portuguese language and ethnography, and features renowned artists, Ivan Lins, Luís Represas, Mafalda Arnauth and Filipe Raposo.
In 2018, “PORTUCALIS” was heard at more than 30 concerts in Portugal, Spain, Sweden, France, Holland, Turkey, Tunisia, Romania and Poland. Concerts where Ana Laíns, invariably, left her mark as a different kind of singer, presenting a global journey through the culture of Portugal. One highlight was the closing concert of the Cascais “Festas do Mar”, which was conceived and produced in its entirety by the singer in partnership with the municipality and the Cascais Symphonic Orchestra. At this concert, Lusophony was at the core of a memorable evening that brought together on the same stage Fafa de Belém, Luís Represas, Stewart Sukuma, Paulo Flores, Karyna Gomes, Lura, Tonecas Prazeres and Piki Pereira, representing the 8 portuguese-speaking countries.
In In 2019, Ana saw her success confirmed with a vast tour that took in most major portuguese cultural events, namely the “Artes à Rua Festival” (Évora), the “Sons da Terra Festival” (Oeiras), the “Seixal Fado Festival Food Fest”, “FicaVouga” (Sever do Vouga) and the “Leiria Music Festival”, where she performed accompanied by the Beiras Philharmonic Orchestra, as a guest of Ivan Lins. At the invitation of Júlio Isidro she was part of the select line-up for a concert celebrating the 45th anniversary of the 25th of April revolution, produced by RTP, portuguese state television. A subsequent international tour visited Barcelona, Madrid, Seville, Zaragoza, Zamora, Bucharest and Baku, with a highlight being the “International Music Festival” in Izmir (Turkey), which successfully presented a portuguese singer for the first time in its history.
2021 turned out to be the year of the singer’s consecration, with the success of the new album celebrating 20 years of her career, which went directly to number 1 in the National Top Sales ranking, and a national and international tour with more than 30 dates in countries such as Croatia (where she performed at the National Theatre in Zagreb), Lithuania (Sofijos Festivalis), Ibiza (Festival Nits de Tanit), Turkey (Ankara Opera, invited by the Symphonic Orchestra of the Turkish presidency) or Brazil (CCBB concert hall of Brasília). The success of the tour in Brazil in November 2021, earned Ana Laíns the invitation of the Portuguese Embassy in Brasília, to produce an official concert for the Celebration of the Day of Portugal and the Communities, and her 2nd tour in Brazilian territory to take place in June of 2022.
