Madeira News Blog

Late news flash : Anyone in Funchal tonight might like to know that José Cid (above) is playing live tonight in the Largo do Colégio (the square where the council office is) at 10pm I believe. The concert is paid for by the council as part of the Book Fair festivities, and José Cid is one of the top Portuguese names in music. I heard a bit of his music earlier, and he sounds pretty good, and it’s not fado. Not bad for a freebie anyway!

(29th May). ‘Musica EB Livens 3 Thousand Students In June’. MusicaEB is in it’s 27th edition, where students from all over Madeira are united on stage in song, music, dance and theatre. The soundtrack is already being recorded. The event will take place in the Centro de Congressos on 17th, 18th and 19th June, with three thousand students involved. Even the design and construction of the stage and props is left to the ingenuity and expression of the participants, and much of what one will see involves recycled items. Tickets for the event, which has been running since 1982, are €2.50 for adults and €1.50 for children.

(28th May). ‘CD Recovers The Voice Of The Madeiran Tenor – Lomelino Silva (above) was the ‘Portuguese Caruso’ during the 1920′s’. A new CD, due to be ‘revealed’ tomorrow at the Book Fair in Funchal, recovers the lost works of the famous Madeiran tenor, who lived between 1892 and 1967. The project started in 2002, when another younger Madeiran, who was studying in the United States, found references to the singer in old newspapers about performances there. He then decided to search for recordings, which led to the discovery of three old 78 LPs from around 80 years ago. To cut a very long story short … a new CD was produced from the old material discovered. 

Nenê, the striker for Nacional, and the highest scorer in the Portuguese premier league during the football season just finished, received his prize for the achievement in Funchal yesterday. After being awarded the ‘silver ball’, he said it was the greatest / proudest  moment / achievement of his career so far. Truth is I saw it on TV yesterday, and now I can’t remember his exact words.

I am a bit the worse for wear this morning, having unexpectedly stayed out until 2am last night, but I have a good excuse so I am not in the least bit embarrassed. 

It was a sort of strange night, as I went into town just as it was getting dark. I was feeling a bit down, after a day when nothing seemed to go right, and in a week I when learned that there is going to be a huge new building constructed across from me, planing consent having just been granted. So what you say? This new building is bigger than the one where I live, and that’s pretty big. So what you say? My building needed many many months to prepare the land, just taking out rock to shape the site, this new bigger project is going to take out much more rock … so there will be months and months of tak tak tak tak as the machines take out thousands of tonnes. If you have ever lived in a narrow valley with pneumatic drills in use, you will know what I mean. Even the elections that were cheesing me off a little, have paled into insignificance compared to that prospect.

So I went into a regular haunt for a chat, then I went off to watch some of the late match in a restaurant, when a friend turned up. He told me that Vânia Fernandes was in town, and singing in another restaurant at 11pm. If you don’t know who Vânia is by now, you must have missed a lot of previous blogs. Madeira’s favourite daughter is the winner of last years pop idol competition in Portugal, as well as the entrant for last years Eurovision song contest. I had seen her perform live once before, and I was well up for a repeat performance.

Vânia Fernandes in Ribeira Brava May 2009

I didn’t know any of the music (mostly Jazz-Soul), but she was fantastic, in presence and in voice. She got the audience involved for one song, and she is such a natural on stage that it was mesmerising to watch. She did half a dozen songs I guess, and her boyfriend also did a couple of numbers, so it was all over pretty quickly. Once the show was over Vânia wondered around talking to friends, which she clearly had plenty of there, and then went indoors with her band members. What came next I didn’t expect, as I mentioned to my pal that I would love to meet her, and 5 minutes later there she was, right in front of me, giving me a big hug and beijinhos. She was lovely, and she stayed a few minutes to chat and have her photo taken with me, and I was so overcome I totally forgot how to speak Portuguese, I was almost speechless in fact, and just babbled a load of nonsense.

So anyway, that made my day, and my week. I am promised a copy of the photo of me and Vânia in an embrace, so I might share that when it comes. Vânia said she would check out this blog today, and I know I have said all nice things about her, but they are all true and she deserves them! Thank you Vânia!

As far as meeting Madeira’s most famous people goes, that’s two down, two to go. CR7 and Uncle Bertie might prove to be a bit trickier me thinks.

PS – sorry about the poor photo … I only had my camera phone to hand, and it was very dark