Dino D'Santiago, this Tuesday at the first concert of the South Music festival, in Faro (Portugal).
/ ETIC-ALGARVE / EPOPEIA
In Portugal, as in the rest of the world, the path to carve out a musical career has traditionally passed through the capital. So artists who do not have the possibility of moving to Lisbon fail to stand out and most remain in the stages of bars, hotels or small spaces. Situation that the Municipality of Faro, the capital of the Algarve, intends to reverse with a project to provide these artists with tools to develop their careers from the south. South Music, the first edition of this program, has brought together 33 groups from the region for two days, June 15 and 16, selected from the 120 that have performed, and has taken them to four stages in the historic center of Faro before 150 professionals from the sector from all over the country.
South Music is part of the initiatives that Faro, with some 70,000 inhabitants, is developing for its candidacy for European Capital of Culture 2027, but it is a long-term project that will continue throughout the year with seminars and workshops in which artists They will be in contact with music producers, record labels, festival directors, technicians and other professionals related to the sector.
The singer and composer Dino D'Santiago (Faro, 38 years old) is one of the ambassadors, now consolidated artists who had to leave the region to succeed, who has joined this initiative: “Currently, you can develop a career from the South, but first they have to get rid of the stigma that marks them as second-rate artists, just because they perform in bars and hotels. In the Algarve there are very good and eclectic musicians, especially jazz and
heavy metal
; But we must give dignity to the profession and that can be done with initiatives such as South Music ”, said this Tuesday the singer of Cape Verdean origin who first moved to Porto, where he lived for 11 years, and has lived in Lisbon for seven years.
From the left, Nuno Guerreiro, Júlio Resende and Viviane, this Tuesday at the 'Embassadors' concert, in Faro.
/ ETIC-ALGARVE / EPOPEIA
His music, an Afro-Portuguese synthesis that conquered Madonna, with whom he has collaborated on several occasions, opened the South Music event this Tuesday on the open-air stage of Quinta Lão, together with the pianist Júlio Resende, the singers Viviane and Nuno Guerreiro and double bass player Zé Eduardo.
All of them have collaborated with the City Council of Faro and the Teatro das Figuras to develop this project which, in addition to the joint work sessions between the musicians of the 33 selected groups and the professionals, includes concerts of about 30 minutes from 6.30 p.m. to 6 p.m. one in the morning.
Júlio Resende, a teacher adding jazz and fado to the piano, was born in Faro 39 years ago and at 19 he moved to Lisbon to study piano and philosophy: “My focus has always been music, but philosophy has helped me to develop concepts with sufficient substance and to be able to transmit them to other people ”.
The advice that the pianist and composer has given to beginning musicians consists of "a lot of love, a lot of work, perseverance and good career management, something that is achieved by surrounding yourself with a good team."
As his colleague Dino D'Santiago points out, to endure in this business, the artist cannot separate from the person.
“You can't cut a diamond and expect a ruby to come out.
You have to have the courage to be yourself ”, he adds.
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Lighthouse from the sofa
Advice that they have listened carefully from the young singer of Dispirited Spirits, Rodrigo Dias (Faro, 18 years old) who last year founded his
indie-rock band,
to the veteran Brazilian singer-songwriter based in the Algarve Paulinho Lêmos, 63 years old.
Musicians from bands such as Goldcobra, Riding a Meteor or Plasticine who through this initiative have direct contact with the industry without having to move to the capital.
For Bruno Inacio, Head of Culture of the Faro City Council, it is about creating "a platform to promote regional talent and an opportunity to encourage creation, collaboration and exchange".
Among the 120 applications received, there are around thirty genres, but the most frequent in this region of southern Portugal are pop-rock, jazz and rap.
In addition to the Quinta Lão, behind the Municipal Museum of Faro, concerts have also been programmed in the museum's 16th-century cloister and in two spaces of the Beer Factory, an industrial building from the early 20th century that was built on the ruins of the Muslim fortress of the XI. “It's funny because a beer has never been made here, although it was built for it. It was used as a military warehouse and now the City Council has given it to an association of musicians who have around thirty rehearsal rooms and places for performances ”, adds Inacio, who plans to expand the project to other performing arts.
