Grândola, vila morena

A canzoni si fan Rivoluzioni
di Riccardo Venturi.

Se mai esiste una canzone che ha fatto la storia nel senso più completo del termine, questa è Grândola vila morena. In assoluto, una delle canzoni più famose della storia e sicuramente la più famosa di tutta quella del Portogallo.


Fu infatti proprio la trasmissione di questa canzone di José Afonso (fino ad allora assolutamente proibita a tutte le emittenti pubbliche e private del Portogallo) dalle onde di "Limite", il programma musicale quotidiano notturno di "Rádio Renascença", un'emittente cattolica di proprietà diretta della Curia portoghese, che diede il segnale d'inizio alla Revolução dos Cravos, la "Rivoluzione dei Garofani" (così chiamata dai fiori che una venditrice ambulante, Celeste Martins Caeiro, si mise a offrire ai militari di sinistra la mattina del sollevamento, in Praça do Comércio) che mise fine alla dittatura fascista portoghese, che durava da oltre quarant'anni. La trasmissione della canzone avvenne esattamente alle ore 00,20 del 25 aprile 1974.


La canzone di José Afonso rappresentò in realtà il “Secondo segnale” (2a Senha) del pronunciamento militare; il “Primo segnale” (1a Senha), trasmesso durante il programma musicale Limite dalla stessa Rádio Renascença alle ore 23,00 del 24 aprile, rappresentava il segnale convenzionale di preallarme. Si trattava di una canzonetta d'amore di Paulo de Carvalho, E depois do adeus, scelta anch'essa dai militari forse con un pizzico di ironia, poiché era il classico lamento dell'innamorato mandato al gas dalla fidanzata. Con questo, anche la canzonetta di Paulo de Carvalho entrò nella Storia, e dalla porta principale. Ma fu la trasmissione di Grândola (canzone la cui trasmissione era sì severamente proibita, ma che era in libera vendita sia come singolo, sia come facente parte dell'album Cantigas do Maio) che segnò il vero inizio delle operazioni militari e, in pratica, dell'intera Rivoluzione). Una canzone che parla di fraternità, di pace e di uguaglianza fu presa a simbolo da delle forze armate che, una volta tanto, fecero veramente il bene del loro popolo (interrompendo, tra le altre cose, le sanguinose e anacronistiche guerre coloniali che stavano letteralmente dissanguando il Portogallo).

La canzone ha, peraltro, una storia abbastanza complessa, raccontata solo in parte da José Afonso stesso. Il testo era stato da lui scritto nel 1964 in una prima forma, quando si era recato nella cittadina di Grândola, nell'Alentejo, invitato a tenere un recital dalla Sociedade Musical Fraternidade Operária Grandolense (“Società Musicale Fraternità Operaia Grandolese”), una cooperativa di mutuo soccorso tra gli operai e i contadini della zona che aveva anche un'importante corale e sezione musicale, e che era attiva nell'opposizione alla dittatura salazarista. All'interno della cooperativa, era stata proprio la sezione musicale, all'inizio degli anni '60, a far crescere il sentimento e l'attività di opposizione. José Afonso fu accolto con entusiasmo, così come la sua esecuzione di Grândola vila morena, scritta “ad hoc” per l'occasione in forma di Cante Alentejano a cappella; lo spettacolo si svolse il 17 maggio 1964, e fu proprio allora che José Afonso conobbe il chitarrista Carlos Paredes (1925-2004), che si esibiva assieme a Júlio Abreu. José Afonso, accompagnato da Rui Pato, tenne un concerto di Baladas e canções de Coimbra. José Afonso rimase soprattutto impressionato dall'Associazione: un "locale buio e privo di qualsiasi struttura, con una biblioteca, con chiari obiettivi rivoluzionari ed una disciplina generalizzata ed accettata da tutti i membri. Ciò rivelava una grande coscienza e maturità politica."

Col senno di poi, si può dire che proprio in quel “locale buio e privo di qualsiasi struttura” della cittadina dell'Alentejo prese avvio, dieci anni prima, la Rivoluzione che avrebbe abbattuto il fascismo portoghese e l'Estado Novo. Ma fu solo nel 1971 che Grândola vila morena divenne una canzone vera e propria: è la quinta traccia dell'album Cantigas do Maio, con arrangiamento e direzione musicale di José Mário Branco (responsabile anche dei celeberrimi “passi di marcia” della canzone, che sono stati giustamente paragonati al quadro “Il quarto stato” di Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo). Il disco, realizzato nell'ottobre del 1971, era stato registrato allo "Strawberry Studio" del Castello di Hérouville, in Francia (studio dove avevano registrato anche i Beatles, i Pink Floyd e Elton John); i "passi di marcia" che segnano il ritmo della canzone furono registrati da José Afonso stesso, da Francisco Fanhais e da Carlos Correia, che uscirono alle 3 del mattino su un terreno ghiaioso all'esterno dello studio di registrazione per evitare il rumore delle automobili che, durante il giorno, passavano per una strada adiacente. Nel susseguente pomeriggio fu effettuata la registrazione vocale. Come è già stato accennato, il testo originale della canzone non era stato concepito da José Afonso come esplicitamente politico e di protesta; al momento della registrazione gli furono fatte delle modifiche con le quali assunse un messaggio altamente politico nel contesto dittatoriale di allora.

È proprio tra la fine degli anni '60 e l'inizio degli anni '70 che i giovani artisti portoghesi alzano la voce. Per oltre quarant'anni, a partire dal 1926, il paese si trovava governato dalla dittatura fascista di António de Oliveira Salazar, che aveva dissipato il potenziale economico e umano del Portogallo in una serie di guerre coloniali atte a ribadire la “grandezza” dell'impero portoghese, mentre il paese si trovava in una situazione interna disastrosa che non lasciava altra via d'uscita che l'emigrazione. L'espressione aperta di opinioni critiche, ad esempio in libri di qualsiasi genere e in giornali, non era permessa dalla censura e dall'onnipresente polizia politica, la PIDE. Una delle poche forme per esprimere lo scontento e le speranze di cambiamento era senz'altro la canzone; ma anche questa era sottoposta a pesantissime censure e a divieti, e gli artisti prelevati e portati in galera non furono pochi. Tra questi, anche e soprattutto José Afonso. Ad un certo punto, si arrivò a proibire di menzionare il suo stesso nome nei giornali e in ogni tipo di pubblicazione; per questo motivo, lo si scriveva al contrario (“Esoj Osnofa”) per evadere la censura.

L'album Cantigas do Maio fu, sin dalla sua uscita, sottoposto a censure. In particolare, fu proibito categoricamente di trasmettere tutte le sue canzoni alla radio e alla televisione; curiosamente, però, non fu mai ritirato dalla vendita: chiunque poteva andare in un negozio di dischi e acquistarlo. Ancora più curiosamente, fu concesso alla potente emittente cattolica Rádio Renascença (probabilmente la principale emittente del paese, di proprietà diretta della Conferenza Episcopale Portoghese), di trasmettere una sola canzone dell'album: si trattava proprio di Grândola vila morena che, quindi, era passata in radio alcune volte anche prima del 25 aprile 1974. Il 10 maggio 1972, José Afonso la aveva eseguita in concerto a Santiago de Compostela, la capitale della Galizia, vale a dire nella Spagna ancora sotto il Franchismo, approfittando senz'altro del fatto che il portoghese e la lingua locale, il galego o galiziano, sono praticamente identiche; avvenne durante un recital al Burgo das Naçons, cui era stato invitato dal musicista galiziano Benedicto García Villar (qui l'intero recital e un resoconto più dettagliato dell'episodio). Nel 1973, la casa editrice e discografica Orfeu pubblicò la canzone in singolo 45 giri.

Il 29 marzo 1974, meno di un mese prima della Rivoluzione dei Garofani, presso il Coliseu dos Recreios (un auditorium polivalente situato nella Rua das Portas de Santo Antão a Lisbona) si tenne il “Primo Incontro della Canzone Portoghese” (I Encontro da Canção Portuguesa), Si trattava in realtà sì di un incontro musicale, ma nel titolo di chiama non si poteva certo dire che si trattava della canzone di protesta e di denuncia contro la dittatura dell'Estado Novo (talmente “novo” che aveva già oltre quarant'anni ed era già abbondantemente imputridito). La cosa non era ovviamente sfuggita alle autorità, che si erano affrettate a proibirlo. Ciononostante, la sala era già stracolma fino all'inverosimile: si calcola che vi fossero ammassate settemila persone. Dopo un lungo ritardo (poiché già recarvisi costituiva un atto di protesta contro la dittatura), e con ulteriori e lunghissime file di persone all'esterno, le autorità decisero di far tenere il concerto. La Polícia de Segurança Pública (PSP) e la Guarda Nacional Republicana (GNR) erano già pronte a sgomberare la sala e le strade adiacenti con la forza, ma non ricevettero alcun ordine: la quantità di persone era talmente smisurata, che neppure le autorità fasciste se la sentirono di provocare un disastro di proporzioni inimmaginabili. Fu quindi deciso di dare inizio allo spettacolo, ma con una censura ferrea: tra tagli, censure totali e divieti, trenta canzoni furono eliminate. Diversi artisti pensarono che sarebbe stato meglio non tenere lo spettacolo in quelle condizioni; si decisero poi a tenerlo comunque, per rispetto verso il pubblico. Pur con una pessima qualità fonica, si cominciò con qualche canzone “permessa”; il pubblico non si scaldò fino all'esibizione di António Macedo, la cui canzone Canta, canta amigo era nota negli ambienti dell'opposizione, e che fu intonata in coro da una larga parte delle persone presenti. Si esibirono poi il chitarrista Carlos Paredes (che José Afonso aveva conosciuto proprio a Grândola nel 1964) e Maria do Amparo; al momento dell'esibizione di José Carlos Ary dos Santos (che, nel 1969, aveva aderito al Partito Comunista Portoghese) partirono cori e slogan antifascisti. Fu poi il turno di artisti come Manuel Freire (noto per aver cantato anche dei testi di José Saramago, come Ouvindo Beethoven), Adriano Correia de Oliveira, José Barata Mouro e Fernando Tordo. Sta per esibirsi, per ultimo, José Afonso. Tra il pubblico si sente canticchiare, senza parole, il motivo della sua canzone più proibita, Os vampiros; a questo punto “parte la bambola”, e la polizia non riesce più a contenere il pubblico; la PIDE comincia a “identificare” artisti, tecnici e persone presenti tra il pubblico, mentre si sentono urla. “Fascisti! Fascisti!”. Sul palco, Manuel Freire dice ironicamente di “essersi purtroppo scordato le parole di alcune canzoni mentre arrivava in teatro”, suscitando applausi e risate fragorose; José Jorge Letria fa una finta aria desolata e dice: “Mi piacerebbe cantare, se potessi....”, e giù di nuovo applausi e risate. José Afonso chiude il concerto interpretando una delle poche canzoni che erano state permesse: Grândola vila morena, che viene accompagnata nel canto dalle migliaia di persone presenti. La scena viene descritta come “impressionante” da chi c'era.


Al momento della consegna dei premi (l' “Incontro” era stato organizzato come un vero e proprio festival), Adelino Gomes, che aveva ricevuto uno dei premi, dichiara:


Al che José Afonso torna sul palco e ripete Grândola vila morena di nuovo tra le urla di "Fascisti! Fascisti". Nel frattempo, la macchina del colpo di stato militare antifascista è già ampiamente in moto; Grândola è già diventata una canzone-simbolo, e probabilmente proprio la reazione del pubblico all'esibizione di José Afonso al Coliseu dos Recreios la fa scegliere come segnale per l'avvio delle operazioni (oltre al fatto che Rádio Renascença aveva il permesso di trasmetterla). Senonché, Carlos Albino, un membro di coordinamento del Movimento das Forças Armadas, si accorge all'ultimo momento che, nonostante la avesse già trasmessa, Rádio Renascença non possiede una copia della canzone. Alle ore 11 del mattino del 24 aprile 1974, si reca allora, senza informare nessuno, alla libreria “Opinião” in Praça do Alvalade, dove acquista, per essere sicuro, una copia sia dell'album Cantigas do Maio, sia del 45 giri del 1973 con Grândola vila morena. Alle ore 14, nella sua edizione del pomeriggio, il quotidiano República inserisce una breve notizia intitolata “LIMITE”, del seguente tenore:


Nonostante Carlos Albino avesse notato un'auto della PIDE che girava fuori dalla redazione del programma “Limite” verso le 11,30, alle ore 14,45 il maggiore Neves Rosa informa Otelo de Carvalho che l'ultimo agente di collegamento è rientrato, e che tutti gli ordini definitivi sono stati consegnati. Alle 15 avviene l'incontro decisivo tra Carlos Albino e Manuel Tomás, tecnico e fonico di Rádio Renascença, responsabili del programma "Limite". Manuel Tomás, tornato da poco dal Mozambico dove si è distinto per la sua attività democratica e di appoggio agli elementi progressisti delle Forze Armate, dà le ultime garanzie sulla trasmissione della canzone-segnale. Ci sono da approntare dei dettagli tecnici, ma i due, non sentendosi al riparo nei locali del programma, cercano un posto più sicuro per discutere. Si recano quindi insieme alla chiesa di S.João do Brito, si inginocchiano presso l'altare e parlano delle ultime messe a punto (scaletta, pubblicità, tempi tecnici) facendo finta di pregare. Per dare ancor meno nell'occhio, ricevono anche la comunione. Alle ore 17, Manuel Tomás convoca un altro responsabile del programma, Leite de Vasconcelos, che però non è assolutamente al corrente di tutto ciò che sta accadendo, e gli consegna la scaletta dei primi minuti del programma della mezzanotte, appena approvata dalla censura interna. La scaletta è la seguente: Pubblicità, canzone "Grândola", pubblicità, lettura di poesie, canzone "Coro da primavera" (sempre di José Afonso); il tutto ha una durata di undici minuti.

Sono le ore 22.55, in un'altra e più piccola emittente radiofonica; Rádio Alfabeta, collegata con la rete EAL (Emissores Associados de Lisboa). Radio Alfabeta è in quel momento collegata con due altre emittenti, “Rádio Peninsular” e “Rádio Sonora Voz de Lisboa”: insieme riescono a raggiungere discretamente tutta la vasta area della capitale. L'annunciatore João Paulo Diniz annuncia che “mancano cinque minuti alle 23 e sarà con voi Paulo de Carvalho, che vi canterà il suo grande successo dell'Eurofestival 'E depois do adeus". La sdolcinata ed innocua canzonetta sentimentale fa già parte della scaletta del programma musicale di Rádio Alfabeta, ed entra anch'essa a modo suo nella Storia: è stata infatti scelta come segnale di preallarme (“Primeira Senha”) per le Forze Armate, almeno nelle zone raggiunte dalla frequenza dell'emittente. João Paulo Diniz è naturalmente al corrente della cosa; seguendo le istruzioni del MFA, alla mezzanotte in punto conclude il proprio programma a Rádio Alfabeta e rientra a casa. Per le strade di Lisbona non si nota ancora assolutamente nulla.



Frattanto, negli studi di Rádio Renascença, in rua Capelo (nello storico quartiere del Chiado, poi andato semidistrutto da un incendio nel 1994), un annunciatore, del tutto ignaro degli impegni assunti da Carlos Albino e Manuel Tomás, legge annunci pubblicitari senza intenzione di voler smettere e non accorgendosi dei gesti disperati di Manuel Tomás che si sbraccia per dirgli di interrompere. Passati 19 secondi dall'ora concordata per il segnale, Manuel Tomás da uno strattone alla mano dell'altro tecnico, José Videira, facendo partire il nastro dov'era stata registrata "Grândola vila morena". La canzone parte, è il "celebre segnale" ("célebre senha") della "Rivoluzione dei Garofani", che abbatte il più antico regime fascista europeo con diciannove secondi di ritardo. Sono le ore 00.20 del 25 aprile 1974.


Dieci minuti dopo il segnale, a mezzanotte e mezzo,la macchina di ciò che è un colpo di stato militare e una Rivoluzione al tempo stesso è già pienamente in moto a Lisbona e in tutto il Portogallo. Iniziano gli arresti degli ufficiali rimasti fedeli al regime; al Campo di Istruzione Militare di Santa Margarida si accumula materiale da guerra, vengono messi a punto i blindati e i carri armati senza che ancora il governo abbia la minima notizia di quel che sta accadendo.La preparazione dell'azione, tra bar, ristoranti, pasticcerie, rosticcerie e chiese, è stata perfetta. Alle 4.26 viene trasmesso per radio il primo comunicato del Movimento das Forças Armadas (MFA), dalle onde di RCP (Rádio Clube Português), letto dal giornalista Joaquim Furtado:




Seguono l'esecuzione della “Portuguesa”, l'inno nazionale portoghese, e le più classiche marce militari da colpo di stato, tra le quali A Life on the Ocean Wave (o Life on the Ocean Waves) del compositore Henry Russell (1812-1900), che sarebbe stata adottata come vero e proprio inno dal Movimento delle Forze Armate. Curiosamente (ma non troppo, visto che si tratta di un inno militare marinaresco) viene trasmessa nell'esecuzione della Banda della Marina degli Stati Uniti d'America:



Cosa pochissimo nota, è che lo stesso Rádio Clube Português che, alle 23 del 24 aprile, aveva trasmesso E depois do adeus come segnale di preallarme, trasmise attorno alle 2,30 del 25 aprile un’altra canzone come segnale che le operazioni stavano procedendo senza intoppi. La semisconosciuta Terceira senha era un’altra canzone di José Afonso, Os vampiros, celeberrima e, questa sì, assolutamente proibita all’ascolto e alla vendita durante il regime. Averla trasmessa, significava che il regime era già bell’e caduto.



Gli avvenimenti e i comunicati si susseguono rapidi in quella fatidica giornata che cambia la storia del Portogallo: invitando a leggere questa cronologia dettagliata, si dirà soltanto che il governo fascista di Marcelo Caetano e del presidente Américo Thomaz si arrende alle 18.20 nelle mani del generale António de Spínola. Alle 19,30, Caetano, a bordo di un autoblindo Chaimite, viene trasferito presso il comando del MFA alla Pontinha, e verso le 21 parte per l'isola di Madeira, da dove poi andrà in esilio in Brasile. Alla stessa ora, si hanno le uniche vittime di quella giornata storica: elementi della PIDE/DGS aprono il fuoco dalle finestre della sede assediata in via António Maria Cardoso: si hanno cinque morti e oltre 45 feriti. Un agente della PIDE viene ucciso dalle forze armate mentre tenta di fuggire. La definitiva resa della PIDE avviene poco dopo nelle mani di un corpo di fucilieri della Marina; già nella giornata del 25 aprile erano state aperte le carceri politiche con la liberazione dei prigionieri, e gli agenti PIDE erano stati messi fuori combattimento e arrestati (pochi di loro, però, subiranno conseguenze penali nel prosieguo degli avvenimenti).




A partire dalla mattina del 26 aprile 1974, il Portogallo è definitivamente libero dalla dittatura fascista. Il colpo di stato militare, nonostante gli appelli a “restare in casa” fatti fin dal primo momento dal MFA nei comunicati radiofonici, si trasforma subito in una vera e propria rivoluzione di popolo: la gente non resta affatto in casa, e fin dalla mattina del 25 aprile si riversa in massa nelle strade e nelle piazze di Lisbona solidarizzando con i soldati. Da qui nasce anche l'episodio dei garofani che daranno il loro nome all'intera rivoluzione, anche se nelle canne dei fucili si vedranno poi anche parecchi papaveri, ugualmente rossi. Pochi giorni dopo, il 1° maggio, si svolge un'enorme manifestazione, la prima libera dopo quarantadue anni di dittatura clericofascista; si può dire che tutto il Portogallo è in piazza. E canta una canzone.

In mezzo a tutto questo, c'è una persona che non ne sa assolutamente nulla: l'autore di quella canzone. Si chiama José Manuel Cerqueira Afonso dos Santos, nato a Aveiro il 2 agosto 1929, e scendendo anche lui in piazza in mezzo a tutti gli altri il 25 aprile, comincia a sentire autentiche masse di persone che cantano Grândola vila morena, e rimane esterrefatto finché qualcuno non gli spiega, qualche giorno dopo, che cos'era successo a mezzanotte e venti e della trasmissione di Rádio Renascença. “Non sapevo che la canzone fosse stata scelta per dare il segnale della Rivoluzione. Nei giorni immediatamente successivi non me ne resi neppure conto. Me ne accorsi quando cominciai a vedere masse di gente che la cantavano per strada; fu una sensazione strana, ma bellissima.” Il 30 aprile, José Afonso si reca all'aeroporto di Lisbona per ricevere alcuni compagni che tornano dall'esilio: principalmente José Mário Branco e Luís Cília che, in dei locali nella banlieue di Parigi producevano, a partire dal 1960, praticamente tutte le canzoni di coloro che, per diversi motivi, erano espatriati dal Portogallo. José Mário Branco era stato arrestato a Coimbra dalla PIDE nel 1962 durante una forte ondata repressiva in seguito alla “Crisi Studentesca” di quell'anno; nel 1963 era andato in esilio a Parigi, allontanandosi peraltro dal Partito Comunista Portoghese di cui era stato militante. Luís Cília fa invece il percorso inverso: anche lui esiliato a Parigi nel 1963, vi aderisce al PCP senza per questo aver nessun motivo di scontro con José Mário Branco. Quel 30 aprile 1974 tornano insieme dall'esilio, curiosamente sullo stesso aereo che riporta in patria anche lo storico segretario del PCP, Álvaro Cunhal. Ad accoglierli ci sono, oltre a José Afonso, José Jorge Letria, Adriano Correia de Oliveira, José Duarte e Ary dos Santos, in un incontro che viene descritto “commovente e entusiasmante”. Ad un certo punto tutti quanti, Álvaro Cunhal compreso, si mettono a cantare in coro Grândola vila morena alzando i pugni chiusi; intervistato sul posto, José Afonso dichiara:


Come dire: Grândola vila morena, pur non essendo nata come tale, diviene un canto politico con un'identità fortissima. Lo diviene, forse, ancor prima di essere scelta dal Movimento delle Forze Armate (che, forse, sarebbe stato più corretto chiamare “dei Capitani”, in quanto quasi tutti gli ufficiali insorti avevano questo grado a parte il mitico Fernando José Salgueiro Maia, che era maggiore, e che prese le armi assieme ai suoi cadetti arrestando i suoi superiori e unendosi alle forze ribelli non appena ebbe udito la senha della canzone di José Afonso). Non ha certamente perso questa sua identità, neppure dopo cinquant'anni; e è diventata famosa in tutta Europa, in tutto il mondo. In Portogallo la hanno interpretata tutti, da Amália Rodrigues a Dulce Pontes; fuori dal Portogallo, nell'originale o in traduzioni e versioni, si ricordano Franz Josef Degenhardt (in tedesco), i Betagarri (in spagnolo e in basco), Edyta Geppert (in polacco), Gianfranco Molle (in esperanto) e gli Knutna Nävar (in svedese). In Italia la si è sempre cantata nell'originale portoghese, ovviamente con pronunce sovente e scusabilmente...fantasiose. Nella città di Grândola è stato eretto un grande monumento riporta lo spartito musicale le parole della canzone:



Per concludere, torniamo però indietro al 25 aprile 1974 con una cosa che ha a che fare con un'altra poesia e un'altra canzone, peraltro già nominata in questa nuova introduzione completamente rifatta in prossimità di un altro 25 aprile, quello “nostro”, quello -ancor più lontano- del 1945, e, soprattutto, del cinquantesimo anniversario della Rivoluzione dei Garofani, che cade il 25 aprile 2024.



Il video sopra riproduce il primo telegiornale della Televisione Portoghese dopo l'insurrezione. Si noterà, alla fine, che il notiziario si conclude con l'annuncio di uno “stacco musicale”: nel bel mezzo di una rivoluzione, la TV lusitana oramai in mano agli insorti decide di trasmettere la III Sinfonia di Beethoven. Ricorda qualcosa? A me sì, e parecchio. Ricorda questa canzone di Manuel Freire, che poi è una poesia di José Saramago. La TV portoghese libera faceva ascoltare Beethoven: era arrivato il giorno delle sorprese.

Riccardo Venturi, 3 aprile 2023 / 20 aprile 2024.

Grândola, Vila Morena: uses and meanings of a song throughout the years
João Madeira, Ricardo Andrade, and Hugo Castro

In March 2013, hundreds of thousands of people, from different generations and social conditions, marched in Lisbon to protest against the austerity policies of the right-wing government then in power and demanding their resignation. The demonstration had fundamentally been called through social networks by an informal movement – To hell with the troika! (Que se lixe a troika!). Both at the end and during the demonstration, a song was sung – Grândola, Vila Morena (Grândola, Brown/Tanned Town), composed almost 50 years before and available on record for almost four decades. The collective vibe conveyed by the song has remained until today. How to explain such an extraordinary occurrence? How to explain how such different generations, with such different social and political experiences, raised their voices and sang it in unison? At the time of its composition, and even its release on record, Portugal was under a dictatorship, installed by military means in 1926 and in power until 1974. However, this song slipped through the meshes of censorship, one of the most powerful repressive means of the Estado Novo (New State) regime, which, given its characteristics, falls within the scope of the greater family of interwar fascisms. In fact, the song is not exactly a political pamphlet but rather evokes, as metonymy, the social and cultural environment that its author, José Afonso, encountered in a popular association in Grândola, a small town in southern Portugal, at one of his performances in 1964, when he would play by invitation throughout the country, and that greatly impressed him.

The song, which would be sung in public, became popular amongst opposition circles in the early 1970s, being released on record in 1971. In 1974, the state censorship apparatus authorized it to be sung by José Afonso during a concert held on the 29th of March at Coliseu dos Recreios, one of the largest concert halls in Lisbon, where the vibrant enthusiasm and boldness of the statements shouted by the audience foreshadowed the near end of the 48-year-old authoritarian regime. In the room, amid the audience, were several of the young officers who, a few months later, on April 25th, 1974,  used Grândola, Vila Morena as one of the signals aired on the radio to launch the military movement that overthrew the dictatorship, which, on the morning of that same day, with strong popular support, was transformed into a revolutionary process with democratic and socialist meanings. The song, which had in the meanwhile become a symbol of resistance to the dictatorship, then went on to symbolize the defence of these ideals in the turbulent and enthusiastic years of 1974-75 before remaining a symbolic reference with a strong critical connotation within the process of democratic “normalization” and subsequently rekindled as an anthem when the neoliberal order attempted to reverse social and labour rights. This is an essay on how a song, while remaining alive in its political matrix, was able to reframe itself and remain incandescent, crossing different conjunctures and historical contexts, and appealing to different generations of political and social actors.

José Afonso: From “Canção de Coimbra” to “Balada”

In 1964, when he performed in Grândola, José Afonso was just a few months away from turning 35 and had, in the previous year, through the record company Discos Rapsódia, released a small 45 rpm EP, entitled Baladas de Coimbra containing two songs that would become emblematic – Menino do bairro negro (Boy from the Black Neighborhood) and Os vampiros (The Vampires), which marked the start of the new Portuguese protest song. In fact, just after the end of the World War II, Fernando Lopes-Graça, a renowned composer and conductor long linked to opposition circles, had set to music a number of poems of an anti-fascist nature by neo-realist authors3 which became commonly known as Canções Heróicas (Heroic Songs), whose edition was prohibited and seized by the censorship apparatus, restricting this songbook (mainly) to oppositionists attached to the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP).

José Afonso completed his high school studies before attending the University of Coimbra, where he became involved in its longstanding musical culture, deeply rooted in the city’s student milieu, expressed through the Canção de Coimbra (Coimbra’s song) tradition5. In this environment deeply linked to academic bohemia, he also participated in the Tuna and the Academic Orfeon6 groups, which performed regularly both nationally and internationally. Moreover, his first two records were released in 1953.

As the 1950s ended, with his degree in History and Philosophy still incomplete but already working as a teacher, he gave classes in the Algarve region. There, he lived through the presidential elections of 1958, an interesting phenomenon in a country under dictatorship. Salazar’s government controlled and manipulated the entire electoral process, from the census to counting the votes and, in these elections, with the anti-fascist opposition initially divided. However, the candidate Humberto Delgado, a military high official opposed to the regime, supported by the non-communist sectors of the opposition, acquired great prominence and support, attracting thousands of people to street rallies. The great enthusiasm surrounding his candidacy determined the withdrawal of the Communist supported candidate and with strongly radicalized supporters reacting against repressive government policies, with street clashes against the police during the electoral campaign. General Humberto Delgado lost the elections due to monumental institutionalized electoral fraud that fuelled popular indignation and oppositional awareness in a country that was then undergoing important changes with the growth of industrial clusters and the intermediate social strata. Across the country, small nuclei of intellectuals and service workers cemented opposition to the regime and aspired to its overthrow.

These were indeed difficult years for the dictator. In January 1961, a group of exiled Portuguese and Spanish anti-fascist militants, who had constituted in Venezuela the DRIL, the Directório Revolucionário Ibérico de Libertação (Iberian Revolutionary Liberation Directory), willing to undertake more radical actions, proceeded on the island of Curaçao, in the Caribbean, to seize and divert, for 13 days, the ship Santa Maria, drawing international attention to the dictatorship in Portugal, which demoralized Salazar’s government. 1961 was also marked by the beginning of the Colonial War (1961-1974), which broke out with particular violence in Angola. The following year began with an assault on a barracks in Beja, in southern Portugal, an unsuccessful attempted coup. Demonstrations commemorating the 1st of May became particularly fierce and, in the rural fields of the South, a concerted wave of strikes took place calling for an 8-hour working day. Meanwhile, in Coimbra and Lisbon, the main universities in the country, there was a major academic crisis, with thousands of students on strike and holding rallies and parades. Despite no longer living in Coimbra, José Afonso maintained a close relationship with the city, whether with intellectuals or with more advanced student groups, and these events necessarily influenced him. This provides the context for his breaking with the fado tradition of Coimbra, and with its formal restraints. He held his own ideas, an irrepressible creative drive for other sounds, and started composing baladas (ballads).

In the very early 1960s, on one of his trips to Coimbra, he took a set of these new songs that distanced themselves from Coimbra’s song and, wanting to show them these new compositions, he sought out his circle of friends who gathered at the café table but lacking any classical guitar (viola). One, Rocha Pato, remembered his son Rui, still very young, was studying music and had a classical guitar. Thus, it was at their house he would timidly interpret José Afonso’s ideas, working on improving the musical sketches the singer had brought. José Afonso was a fertile stream of creativity but had not undertaken any formal musical studies and he would benefit from an aesthetically complicit relationship with Rui Pato’s guitar accompaniment from then until the end of the 1960s. This would prove of fundamental importance to the renewal of his way of composing and singing, definitively abandoning the traditional accompaniment of Coimbra’s Portuguese guitar. In 1962, the EP Baladas de Coimbra was released after its recording in an old, abandoned monastery with these new compositions featuring José Afonso’s voice rising clearly to the sound of Rui Pato’s classical guitar. Similarly, a year later he recorded, in the same location and with the same accompaniment, a new EP that was again called Baladas de Coimbra, and including the two aforementioned songs with strong political and social connotations. The censorship apparatus would subsequently seek to seize the entire edition.

In Coimbra, the rehearsals were held in café billiards rooms where he met up with friends. Requests to perform multiplied, some with small cachets that eased his financial difficulties, others out of complete generosity and solidarity. He performed both in student associations and in concert halls, outdoors, at social gatherings or at the invitation of friends. José Afonso began to be well known and the impact of his new compositions increased, gaining admirers, particularly among student activists who lived through the election campaign of General Humberto Delgado in 1958 and the academic strike of 1962. This social and political situation was unparalleled in Europe. Portugal lived under a dictatorship that, as in Spain, and with the support of Western democracies, managed to survive the international defeat of Nazi-fascism in the context of the Cold War. However, within this environment, such as in the rest of Western Europe, the reconfiguration of the opposition forces, especially those on the left of the PCP, reflected, particularly in student and intellectual circles, the influences of the Cuban revolution and of the Sino-Soviet dispute.

José Afonso was, as he himself recognized, a “turn of the page” as a singer, even though he maintained an expressive flow of compositions without overly evident political connotations. This process preceded the social, political and cultural wave brought by the French May 1968 movement, which, however, would also impact Afonso. At the turn of the 1960s into the 1970s, he increasingly contacted cultural circles of the radical left abroad, particularly in Paris, where many young deserters from the Colonial War took refuge, and in London. This new phase provided José Afonso with the establishment of an informal solidarity network with a particular focus on protest songs, befriending singers of different nationalities such as Paco Ibáñez and Caetano Veloso. Never having adhered to the Communist Party, positioning himself on its left, he nevertheless collaborated with its political and social sectors, especially in the countryside, on the basis of anti-fascist unity in the common fight against the dictatorship of Salazar and, later, Marcelo Caetano.

The genesis of a song

In this new phase of his musical endeavours, José Afonso experienced the need to perform more in working-class environments, whether in urban areas, such as in Lisbon’s industrial sector, or in rural areas, particularly in the south of the country. In the latter region, the intense activities of the clandestine Portuguese Communist Party had built up an aura of resistance amidst the struggle for bread and labour expressed in both towns and villages with strong concentrations of agricultural wage earners, in a region where large landholdings – the latifundium – mostly with a wheat monoculture, predominated. Grândola, a town located 120 km south of Lisbon, was one such location, surrounded by olive groves, cornfields and cork forests, home to rural wage earners, cork cutters, small traders and craftsmen in small workshops. Particularly following the proclamation of the Republic in Portugal in 1910, such locations built up a popularly based associative dynamic that resulted in the launching and maintenance of cultural and recreational associations which were, with their libraries, philharmonic bands and other musical groups, real informal schools attended by workers in a country heavily afflicted by illiteracy.

Against this backdrop, the SMFOG – Sociedade Musical Fraternidade Operária Grandolense (Workers’ Fraternity Musical Society of Grândola), was formed in 1912. Its founding members, mostly workers, such as member no.1, Alfredo Lúcio Feio, a cork sector worker who wrote the society’s statutes, set up a philharmonic band and this musical formation structured its activities and integration into the town’s population with greater or lesser difficulties over the years. In the 1940s, after the course of the Second World War turned favourable to the Allies and when the opposition to Salazar combined efforts to overthrow the regime, in a phase of great expansion for the PCP, political intervention also emerged through popular associations. This was clearly seen in Grândola with the activities ongoing at SMFOG as in the other cultural and recreational collectives established in the locality.

At this point, differences in opinion between some of the Fraternidade Operária Grandolense musicians had already led to a split, with some transferring to another local association, Sport Lisboa e Grândola, with the former becoming known as Música Velha (Old Music). The international defeat of Nazi-fascism did not bring with it the overthrow of Salazar’s Estado Novo, which held out with support from the western powers in the Cold War context. Very isolated politically in the early 1950s, the PCP engaged, together with peripheral organizations such as the MUDJ – the Youth Movement of Democratic Unity and the MDP – the Movement for the Defence of Peace, in strenuously denouncing the western imperialist bloc headed by the United States. In Grândola, there was a council recognised MUDJ group with a professional nucleus of young bricklayers, shoemakers, cork makers and seamstresses. Despite publicly maintaining the organization was legal, the regime undertook thorough surveillance and repression of its members and their activities, forcing them to meet secretly, sometimes in Música Velha but mainly in the fields. They organized dances and youth gatherings in local associations, particularly in Música Velha and Grupo Desportivo Grandolense, sold raffles to raise funds, collected signatures for petitions and distributed propaganda.

In December 1952, a group of MUDJ members set about distributing communiqués and collecting signatures in the town’s streets, including a message from the World Peace Council, an international structure set up under the auspices of the Soviet Union and “popular democratic” countries. They would quickly be intercepted and arrested by the GNR, the National Republican Guard, the main police force operating in rural areas. Family members, companions and neighbours quickly gathered in front of the GNR post demanding their release. The Guard dispersed the concentration but there was no talk of anything else that day throughout the locality with a popular concentration once again gathering in front of the mayor’s house to demand his intervention and the release of the young people with words shouted in defence of peace. There then followed a demonstration through the streets of the town, which was violently repressed by police forces on foot and on horseback.

According to the communist press, 31 arrests were made, and 24 individuals, mostly young people, were interrogated by PIDE, the International State Defence Police, the political police. This event left a great mark on the town, being recalled for many years in the collective memory and influencing younger generations.

Hélder Costa, 13 years old at the time, reiterates the impact of those events and the entire oppositional environment that then existed. One of the town’s barbershops was a location for discussion and antifascist indoctrination and the very environment in Música Velha, as in other groups, served as informal schools of democratic formation in a hostile political environment set up by both the local political and social elites and the political-administrative apparatus of the state – mainly the Town Council and the GNR. In the early 1960s, Hélder Costa was studying in Coimbra and participating in intense student association cultural activities where he met José Afonso. In Grândola, Música Velha continued as one of the most important legal channels for opposition activities, albeit carried out prudently. In 1963, António Manuel, a communist militant, one of the young people arrested ten years earlier, was now Board President. That year, for the annual SMFOG celebrations, the Choir of the Academy of Music Amateurs, directed by Fernando Lopes-Graça, and Antunes da Silva, a neo-realist author, were invited to give a lecture about their experiences. The collective theatre group, with members including some of those arrested in 1952, staged a play by Romeu Correia, also a neo-realist writer and playwright.

As from the following year, José da Conceição, brother of the previous president, António Manuel, was elected vice-president while continuing to belong to the theatre group, began imparting a remarkable dynamism to the town’s cultural life not only through the philharmonic band, to which he added a music school to train new members, but also through the theatre group and the library. It is in this context and for commemorations of the 52nd Música Velha anniversary that José Afonso was invited. The initial contact was made by Hélder Costa, who was then running the theatre group even while studying in Coimbra, with the Board subsequently formalising the invitation. José Afonso, who lived in the Algarve region, readily accepted the invitation, interested not only in performing in popular associations and collectives alongside student associations but also excited to meet and participate in the same event as Carlos Paredes, a virtuoso interpreter of the Portuguese guitar.

In his letter accepting the invitation, dated 27th April, he said he was interested in “not giving a «variety» style exhibitionist character to the presentation of my songs” and wished that “everything takes place in the climate of solidarity that your association proposes to encourage beyond a simple recreational purpose”14. The session’s leaflet program states that:


The singer arrives in Grândola by train, accompanied only by his wife and welcomed at the station by José da Conceição, who took them on a tour of the town and SMFOG where, on May 17, 1964, he performed for free to a packed room, overflowing into the street, and sang new songs such as Coro da primavera or Cantar Alentejano, the latter one composed practically on the eve and evoking the murder of Catarina Eufémia, a rural worker, shot dead by the GNR in Baleizão, near Beja, during a protest for better wages. José Afonso left Grândola, after one of his first performances outside of student circles or more formal circumstances, including television, moved by the reception, the audience’s enthusiasm and the community ambience, directed and dynamized by workers, with a clearly fraternal and oppositional culture. Days later, on 23rd May, already back in the Algarve, in a letter he wrote to his parents, he mentions his performance in Grândola at the SMFOG:



During these days, José Afonso also wrote a letter to José da Conceição, thanking him for the warm reception he received in Grândola and enclosing a poem that precisely evoked this event, which Conceição would then read publicly on May 31st in Música Velha. Its first four lines proclaimed: “Grândola, brown town/Land of fraternity/The people are the ones who command the most/Within you, O city”. According to musician Fernando Alvim, who accompanied Carlos Paredes during his performance, Afonso started composing the words and music of Grândola, Vila Morena on his way back from this session.

Recording the song

Another version of the lyrics, consisting of two stanzas, would eventually be published in the book Cantares, which first came out in 1966. In a new edition of Cantares, published in 1967, the poem already features a new third stanza (referring to the “shadow of a holm oak”, a tree common throughout the Alentejo), and explicitly mentions that it had already been set to music by José Afonso22. The song’s definitive version would be finished a few years later, in 1971, when it was recorded for the Cantigas do Maio album in one of the Château d’Hérouville studios in Paris, produced by José Mário Branco, and published by Orfeu. Exiled in France since 1963, José Mário Branco had been developing his activity as a recording musician and phonographic producer since 1969. Several months before recording Cantigas do Maio, and in the same studio, he had recorded and produced his first LP Mudam-se os Tempos, Mudam-se as Vontades, having also served as musical advisor on the first LP by musician Sérgio Godinho, Os Sobreviventes, albums that would also figure at the top of the critics’ choices in Portugal at the turn of 1971 to 1972. These records caused substantial media impact and constituted milestones in what the press of that time called the “renewal of Portuguese popular music”. This “renewal” was, among other things, characterized by more intense recourse to the potential of multitrack recording and a closer approach to the emerging production practices within the context of Anglo-American pop-rock, aspects inseparable not only from how these records were all recorded in a studio primarily dedicated to rock music but also the musical profile of the leading figure behind producing these albums, José Mário Branco.

The work of producer George Martin, responsible for the musical supervision of almost all the recordings by the English pop group The Beatles, would have a particular impact on José Mário and on a whole new generation of musicians. Precisely from the 1960s onwards, studio productions acquired a specific “artistic” dimension that reconfigured the very repertoire through the creative application of multitrack technology and other technological devices in the studio, with the recording practice also becoming a compositional practice and the studio a compositional instrument. The importance of the sonic/timbrical element on conveying the musician’s and the repertoire’s idiosyncrasies, associated with the construction of studio based sonic realities that went beyond merely capturing and recording live performances, popularized the idea of recording as a specific compositional practice25. In the case of José Mário Branco, his early radio experiences in Oporto, his sound work for theatre and contact with new ways of manipulating sounds within pop-rock music would have a strong impact on his recordings.

As part of his participation in the political turmoil of May 1968, a period during which he played alongside Luís Cília and Sérgio Godinho in several striker occupied factories, José Mário Branco deepened his contacts with several French musicians, such as Jean Sommer, Colette Magny, among others. These contacts would then open the doors to the extensive and dynamic universe of Parisian recording studios, with his debut as an arranger taking place on one of the homonymous LPs by musician James Ollivier, recorded in September 1970 at the Sofreson studio. The second half of 1970 was also marked by the first personal contact between José Mário Branco and José Afonso, which would be of crucial importance to their mutual recording careers. José Mário Branco met José Afonso in around September 1970 after the former’s performance at the Foyer International des étudiantes in Paris, accompanied on guitar by Luís Pedro Faro. Following this personal contact, through which Afonso also met Sérgio Godinho and Luís Cília, José Afonso had the opportunity to hear Branco’s most recent repertoire, whih fascinated him, at several joint performances. José Afonso, partly motivated by his contractual obligations to Orfeu for finding new artists to record, returned to Portugal with some demo recordings by José Mário Branco and Sérgio Godinho with the prospect of them being signed by Arnaldo Trindade; however, they ended up signing with the record company Sassetti. José Mário Branco’s first LP, recorded around February / March 1971, received greater financial support compared to his previous recordings, which allowed him to further elaborate the sonic (and, in his words, sonoplastic) component of the songs through the multiple technical capabilities of the recording studio.

José Mário, after a survey of other musicians over which studio would provide the best quality/price ratio, decided to record his LP at the Château d’Hérouville, located on the outskirts of Paris, and owned by Michel Magne, a well-known film music composer. Magne had set up S.E.M.M. (Société d’Enregistrement Michel Magne) in November 1969 in order to commercially run the château’s first studio, called Strawberry Studio, and, in subsequent years, becoming the location for recording several leading French and British pop-rock acts (Pink Floyd, T. Rex, Elton John, etc.). At the time of recording Mudam-se os Tempos and Cantigas do Maio, the studio had an 8-track recording capacity, with sound technician Gilles Sallé responsible for recording these LPs. On his April 1971 trip to Paris, accompanying the musician Francisco Fanhais on his escape into exile in France, José Afonso met José Mário Branco to discuss preparations for Cantigas do Maio. José Mário Branco’s abilities as an arranger, already demonstrated by Mudam-se os Tempos, Mudam-se as Vontades, corresponded to the drive Afonso had felt since the 1960s over diversifying the instrumental base of his recorded repertoire. After an important recording sequence in which he was accompanied only on guitar by Rui Pato, Afonso began diversifying the arrangements of his repertoire on the LP Contos Velhos Rumos Novos, published by Orfeu in 1969. In this LP, he introduced instruments such as the horn, marimbas and drums, even though these were, in his words, used in the “most dishonest possible” way as they lacked preparation prior to recording.

Given the representative relationship between Orfeu and several foreign labels, José Afonso would record his subsequent LP, Traz Outro Amigo Também (1970), at the Pye Records studios in London. This began his practice of recording albums abroad, partially stimulated by what he described as the deficiencies in the sound quality of recording facilities in Portugal. In London, Afonso personally contacted exiled Brazilian musicians Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, whose work contributed to his later investment in better preparing the instrumental support of his songs:


The preparation for the next José Afonso LP, produced by José Mário Branco, involved face-to-face meetings and correspondence, with José Mário letting himself be “inhabited by those songs” for “a few months” songs which Afonso said he had already written “three years or more ago”. The recording of Cantigas do Maio took place between October 11th and November 4th, 1971 with the participation of some studio musicians with whom José Mário Branco had already worked, among them percussionist Michel Delaporte and bassist Christian Padovan, while also including the participation of Francisco Fanhais and Carlos Correia (Bóris), with the latter responsible for preparing the guitar accompaniments to some of the songs. This experience would profoundly reconfigure José Afonso’s musical output in widening the breadth of his arrangements. Branco would make a particularly important input to sonic (and, in some cases, structural) reconfigurations of several songs, including Grândola, Vila Morena, which was initially accompanied by guitar. José Mário, listening to the song and inspired by reminiscences of his trips to the Alentejo as a young man, convinced José Afonso to give “a real Alentejo feel” to the structure of the verses and the sound of the song, including the inversion of stanzas typical of the Alentejo’s cante, a traditional genre, and the emulation of its choral structure, including the introduction of the ponto, the alto (sung by José Afonso) and the choir (sung by Branco, Fanhais and Correia).ù

José Afonso and José Mário Branco’s interest in traditional music was markedly influenced by the ethnographic work of Michel Giacometti and the composer Fernando Lopes-Graça, which they understood as a subversion of the cultural models proposed by the state institutions of the Salazar regime, illustrating a non-typified musical diversity in the ways of singing, the instruments, their tunings, the themes addressed, and so forth. According to several musicians and intellectuals of this period, the Portuguese traditional music recorded and disseminated by Giacometti and Lopes-Graça contained, in its counter-hegemonic dimension, the potential for political resistance by fostering a diverse and alternative vision to the regime’s idea about the supposed “integrity” of the Portuguese people.

In order to simulate the sound of the Alentejo peasant choirs “embraced along the road” at the end of a day’s work, the four musicians recorded, at night and outside the studio, over a rhythmic reference, the steps that would mark the tempo of Grândola, Vila Morena. According to José Mário, the final result were marked by a “technological error”, given how dragging the foot during the steps is indistinguishable from landing the foot, conveying the impression of having twice the initially intended slow tempo and often leading to the mistaken idea that the steps were that of a military march. The albums Mudam-se os Tempos, Mudam-se as Vontades and Cantigas do Maio, published at the end of 1971, would receive substantial approval and make an impact in the mainstream press that promoted the universe of popular music in Portugal. Radio presenter José Manuel Nunes, at the release session for Mudam-se os Tempos and Romance de um dia na estrada, Sérgio Godinho’s first record, affirmed that these releases would finish the “baladeiros” (balladeers) phase and end the insipid recordings without instrumental and timbrical diversity – “orchestras appear, arrangements are made and Portuguese music seems to us to be in a starting phase”.

The song would only be premiered live in 1972. Despite the first performance of the song in Música Velha in Grândola at the inauguration of an exhibition on neo-realist writer António Alves Redol in April 1972, it was only presented at a larger scale event at Burgo das Naçons in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain, on May 10th, with an audience mainly composed by students under the surveillance of the Spanish police. José Afonso’s tour of Spain during this period, at the invitation of the Galician musician Benedicto Garcia Villar, and the enthusiastic reception of Grândola, Vila Morena by the public, symptomatic of the oppositional impetus common to both dictatorships, would contribute to creating a strong bond between Afonso and the Galician region lasting through to his death.

A password for the revolution

At 00:20h of April 25th 1974, Grândola, Vila Morena was broadcast on the Limite radio program on the Portuguese catholic radio station Rádio Renascença. That moment would trigger a nationwide military operation that would swiftly culminate in a coup d’état ending 48 years of dictatorship in Portugal. The military operation would be engendered by a group of intermediate officers – captains, majors and lieutenants – organized as the MFA – the Armed Forces Movement, a structure set up in 1973 that reflected the unease the Colonial War was producing within the armed forces and intending to move towards changing the Portuguese political system through overthrowing the regime by force.

The use of radio signals was one of the most decisive aspects to the success of the tactical plan designed by Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, senior responsible for the operational sector of the MFA Coordinating Committee. According to journalists Mercedes Guerreiro and Jean Lemâitre, who wrote a book about the song, the decision to use songs broadcast on the radio as signals for launching military operations came from Navy officer Almada Contreiras, a telecommunications specialist. Weeks earlier, on vacation in Madrid, this MFA officer had learned of a book that explained how Salvador Allende’s supporters in Chile had arranged to radio a sequence of Carlos Gardel’s songs, in order to mobilize democratic forces in the event of a fascist coup. Contreiras then suggested to the MFA board that a Portuguese song might be played on the radio as a way of signalling the start of the operation.

The choice and broadcasting of radio signals required Otelo’s particular attention, and it was decided to transmit two signals. According to Otelo, it was essential to choose a song symbolising the intention of the military and MFA officers agreed a song by José Afonso should be chosen. The song Venham Mais Cinco was suggested to the announcer João Paulo Dinis of Emissores Associados de Lisboa (EAL) but he advised that another song should be used, and one not by José Afonso, whose broadcast was unusual on EAL and might arouse suspicion. Dinis proposed an alternative song, E depois do adeus, winner of that year’s Festival RTP da Canção, performed by Paulo de Carvalho, and subsequently confirmed as the first signal to be broadcast during the evening of 24 April. E Depois do Adeus was a very popular song at that time, without any evident political content that might somehow expose the intentions of the military movement. For sending the second radio signal, which would confirm the launch of operations, Álvaro Guerra, a journalist from the newspaper República, was contacted, who, in turn, contacted fellow editor Carlos Albino, author of poems that were usually read on the radio show Limite, aired on Rádio Renascença. Albino arranged with Manuel Tomaz, the program’s sound designer and co-author, who requested the involvement of Leite Vasconcelos, also the program’s co-author and announcer, to record an edition to be broadcast that night that would include the second password. Otelo insisted on using a song by José Afonso, proposing Traz Outro Amigo Também or, alternatively, Venham Mais Cinco. The former, written before 1966 and included on the album with the same title recorded in Britain in 1970, reinforced the idea of ​​collective mobilization, being a tribute by José Afonso to his friend Miguel Ramos, a PCP militant who in 1936 had joined the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. For the same reason, thus, the mobilizing power of the song, Venham Mais Cinco (Come Five More), recorded in 1973 in Paris, and included in the homonymous album, was another hypothesis able to characterize the action of the movement.

Censored internally by the catholic broadcaster, and given the risks of its broadcasting, the choice instead fell on Grândola, Vila Morena which, less than a month earlier, on 29 March, had generated a strong impact at the «Encontro da Canção Portuguesa» concert, organized by Casa da Imprensa at Coliseu dos Recreios. With the participation of several musicians and poets playing together for the first time, the event was marked by strong police surveillance and the intervention of censorship officials postponing the start of the show and prohibiting the performance of some songs and poems. The show’s finale would illustrate the political turmoil surrounding the entire event, with Grândola, Vila Morena emphatically sung by musicians and audience alike. Journalist João Paulo Guerra described the moment as a “collective act in which everyone (public and musicians) joined arms, swaying their bodies to the slow and grave rhythm of the Alentejo song”. In turn, the PIDE report detailed this moment, noting that:


The April 24th edition of the newspaper República carried an appeal to listen to Limite. At the agreed time, Grândola was broadcast, preceded by the reading of its initial stanza. The movement was irreversible and impacted swiftly on the majority of the population of Lisbon and other cities across the country. Defying military orders, and as soon as they became aware of the operations, thousands took to the streets, demonstrating their eagerness and desire to express the feeling of what it was, in short, to be “free”. In just a few hours, the main leaders and figures of the Estado Novo had been overthrown, giving way to a complex and troubled revolutionary process, the Carnation Revolution. In less than a week, and already with the support and action of several popular movements that emerged in the great demonstrations of May 1st staged throughout the country, the main symbols of the old regime were eliminated and the leaders of countless institutions were fired.

The people are the ones who command the most

In the days following 25th April, Grândola, Vila Morena was indispensable to the manifestations of enthusiasm and effusiveness with which the military coup was celebrated, culminating in the intense popular participation in the celebrations of the 1st of May – the first Labour Day celebrated as a national holiday. The press highlighted how, from north to south, the celebrations of freedom featured cries of “Victory, victory”, under the slogan “The people united will never be defeated”, accompanied by the sound of philharmonic bands and thousands of people in the streets singing the national anthem and Grândola, Vila Morena. After decades of censorship and restrictions on freedom of expression, the April 25th revolution triggered a series of changes in the management boards of the media, which proved decisive to reconfiguring the perception of political music among the general public. Throughout the revolutionary period, the general press, radio and television stations definitively opened their doors to the until then “forbidden” protest singers and political songs quickly took up a dominant space in the media. Several press organizations then highlighted the instrumental role played by Grândola, Vila Morena in the military coup, designating it the “freedom password”, “freedom song” or “revolution anthem”, with José Afonso acclaimed as a “poet of the revolution”. In his first comments to Portuguese television after the coup, the musician emphasized his satisfaction at the uses made of his song, stating that Grândola had already been “a stimulating factor for the emotional gathering of people”.

In a Jornal de Notícias article, philologist Arnaldo Saraiva noted that, in just under a week, a series of symbols were already attached to the revolutionary events, highlighting the various slogans repeated “in the street, in the press, on the radio and on television” as well as the role of Grândola, Vila Morena as an “engine of thoughts and behavior”. For example, on April 30, the Diário de Lisboa newspaper reported that around 5,000 people roamed the streets in Grândola, shouting slogans and spontaneously replacing the toponymy associated with the Estado Novo, with the main garden renamed “Jardim 1º de Maio” and Rua Salazar renamed after Afonso (Rua José Afonso).

That same day, at Portela airport (Lisbon), a crowd, including José Afonso and other musicians, journalists and politicians, awaited the arrival of a plane from Paris with dozens of political exiles, including several PCP leaders, including its general secretary Álvaro Cunhal, alongside the musicians José Mário Branco and Luís Cília. The meeting between the singers who were in Portugal with those returning from exile, broadcast on television, was described by the journalists present as a symbolic, emotional and warm moment, with hugs and celebrations that culminated in a joint choral singing of Grândola, Vila Morena. Days later, on May 5, at the Palácio de Cristal in Oporto, the 1st Free Meeting of Popular Song took place with many musicians singing for the first time on Portuguese soil with those returning from exile. At the beginning and at the end of the event, Grândola would be sung by all the musicians and by the thousands of people present. Broadcast live by Emissora ​​Nacional (the national broadcaster), a radio station that had been a key Estado Novo propaganda instrument, the announcers highlighted the symbolism of the moment, stressing that Grândola had been “in everything and for everything, transformed into an authentic song of freedom”. Throughout the revolutionary period, the song would be used in the most varied contexts, from singing sessions promoted by popular communities and associations, in military barracks and MFA initiatives (such as the Cultural Dynamization Campaigns) and, above all, at various moments of revolutionary action, such as strikes, demonstrations, occupations of agricultural land and factories to which José Afonso and other singers were constantly invited. According to Irene Pimentel, José Afonso eventually realized the heightened importance of the song’s meaning during the course of events when the revolution seemed threatened with “Grândola being sung in the moments of greatest danger or enthusiasm”, with Afonso recognizing that these moments had contributed to the transformation of Grândola into an anthem.

Although the song was appropriated as an anthem by various political circles on the left, José Afonso considered the turn of events during the revolutionary period pointed to a tendency towards the greater influence of organized party structures, fearing that these parties would stifle the growing “participation in the sense of popular self-organization”, which impressed him and he identified with. Without party affiliation, but close to organizations and movements that disputed the hegemony of the PCP, this would lead to PCP militants criticizing José Afonso’s political positions in the press.

In 1976, the song was adopted by Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho as an anthem for his campaign for that year’s presidential elections, for which he had the support of various organizations on the radical left and, above all, the public support of José Afonso, who sang Grândola by his side on several occasions. However, there was also an attempt to appropriate the song by the right-wing, which led José Afonso to distance himself in a strongly critical way from this situation. Such a position emerges, for example, in his reaction to usage of Grândola by the social liberal Popular Democratic Party (PPD), writing the following clarification note in May 1975:


In the following years, Grândola would be indexed to memories of the revolution and perceived as a symbol of the conquered freedom, until today performed at the commemorations of 25th April 1974 held in Portugal and in other countries.

New versions, new uses

The transformation of Grândola into an anthem of the Portuguese revolution was also reflected in the various versions emerging in the Portuguese record market over the revolutionary period. The hegemony of the protest singer repertoire on Portuguese radio and television during this period, as well as the accentuation of derogatory speeches in the generalist and specialized press in relation to genres such as fado and the so-called “música ligeira” (literally, light music), which became connoted with the deposed Estado Novo regime, resulted in the decreasing popularity of several musicians and artists who starred on the main record labels prior to the revolution. These labels were now faced with a “competitive market and the need to create musical alternatives associated with new commercial strategies”, thus triggering the music industry’s interest in politically charged music. In the case of Grândola, widely broadcasted on the radio, the song retained intense media exposure, which led to the publication of dozens of versions in Portugal, recorded in various musical genres, including choral groups, Alentejo singing groups and regional choirs, orchestras, philharmonic bands and military bands, electric ensembles, among others. However, some versions of Grândola would also be recorded by fado and “música ligeira” singers, several of them connoted with the previous regime, and which in this way also sought to reconcile themselves with the new social and political paradigm. For example, the versions by singer Roberto Leal and fado singers Maria da Fé and Amália Rodrigues received criticism from some press sources [e.g., the magazine Mundo da Canção] that perceived these releases as editorial strategies of commercial opportunism. 

Nevertheless, the perception of the song’s role and its extensive dissemination led to its international projection, which would further confirm its status as the “anthem of the Portuguese revolution” and consolidate José Afonso as one of its main symbols. Years later, the musician would recognize how Grândola ended up influencing the way in which the Portuguese revolution was perceived internationally, referring to the uses of the song by foreign political organizations. In as early as September 1974, the Fête de L’Humanité in France was dedicated to 25th April, highlighting the theme of “victory over fascism in Portugal”, inviting José Afonso and the singer Luís Cília to perform, and with Grândola, Vila Morena being one of the songs selected for the album Chants de lutte et d’espoir published by the French Radio and Television communist cell, which would also feature musicians from Vietnam, Chile, Spain, Brazil and Greece. Over the following years, José Afonso would be invited to participate in various political events in Angola, Mozambique as well as several European countries, participating also in various political song festivals, including the Festival des Politischen Liedes in 1975, organized in East Berlin, which would publish a single with the recording of his live performance of the songs Grândola, Vila Morena and Natal dos Simples.

Furthermore, part of José Afonso’s recorded output was released in these countries, and the album Cantigas do Maio, although originally published in 1971, was subject to several foreign reissues, with their titles and covers highlighting the song Grândola, Vila Morena and the Portuguese revolution. Some examples include the release by the French label Le Chant du Monde, with a cover illustrated by a photograph of several soldiers with carnations during the 25th April revolution; that by the Italian publisher Zodiaco, which renamed the album Portogallo 25 Aprile José Afonso Grândola Vila Morena; and the German edition, entitled Grândola, Vila Morena, with a poster commemorating the revolution on the cover; also, in 1976, a record in honour of José Afonso entitled Grândola, Lieder aus Portugal (Grândola, songs from Portugal), with a compilation of his songs, was released in the GDR. Still today, the impact of José Afonso’s musical work and the importance of Grândola is reflected in the number of versions of his songs recorded and published outside Portugal, confirming José Afonso as one of the most internationally recorded Portuguese musicians. In recent decades, versions of Grândola appeared in several countries, recorded in different languages and with different musical approaches, such as, among others, the versions by Aparcoa (Chile, 1975); Franz Josef Degenhardt (Germany, 1975); Orkest de Volharding (Netherlands, 1980); Brita Papini and Maria Ahlström (Sweden; 1981); Charlie Haden and Carla Bley (USA; 1983); Agit-Prop (Finland, 1974); Betagarri (Basque Country, 1997); Pascal Comelade and Bel Canto Orchestra (France, 2000); Reincidentes (Galicia, 2013).

In Brazil, a Portuguese-speaking country, versions by Nara Leão, as well as by Paula Ribas and Luís N’Gambi, recorded during the Portuguese revolutionary period and during the military dictatorship in Brazil, became popular, presented as the “new password of liberated Portugal”. In more recent years, the song took on particular significance in the Brazilian rock universe, with a version by the group 365, published in 1986, to the most recent versions by groups such as Autoramas (2009) or Asteróides Trio (2013). In 2018, the Brazilian punk band Garotos Podres recorded the EP Canções da Resistência, symbolically made available to the public at 00:20 on April 26, which included a version of Grândola, Vila Morena. The band members justified their version as part of their resistance against what they deemed the 2016 Fascist Coup and the rupture of democracy in Brazil verified during Jair Bolsonaro’s campaign for the presidency in 2018, stating that:


Its various uses, on an international level, reinforce the song’s symbolic character as an anthem that appeals to freedom and fraternity, transcending its close connection to the fall of the most enduring dictatorship in Western Europe, and, at the same time, given its historical significance, serving as a vehicle for contesting new forms of authoritarianism in different parts of the globe.

To hell with the Troika!

If, as we have seen, the meanings attributed to Grândola, Vila Morena referred partially to its symbolism in the recent history of Portugal, by 2014, forty years after the revolution, more than scrutinizing its symbolism within the 25th April commemorations, Grândola, Vila Morena was recalled out its significance for use in the challenges made to the austerity policies enacted in the wake of the global economic crisis of 2008, which would be marked by some of the most significant demonstrations and protest actions since the revolutionary period. A year earlier, on 15 February 2013, then Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho was speaking at the Assembly of the Republic about the Troika’s intervention in Portugal, the entity responsible for negotiating the conditions of Portugal’s financial rescue and made up of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. A few seconds after the beginning of the speech, Passos Coelho is interrupted by a group of about 40 people present in the Assembly’s galleries, who together begin singing Grândola, Vila Morena. The attitude, susceptible to framing as civil disobedience, provoked the reaction of the Assembly President, who told people to “retreat or be silent”, under the legal pretext of banning public demonstrations in the chamber. After a few moments while the song continued to echo as the demonstrators left, Passos Coelho resumed his speech but not first without pointing out: “Of all the ways a session can be interrupted, this seems significantly the most tasteful”. In fact, although this comment by the Portuguese Prime Minister, in a way “praising” the form of protest used to interrupt his own speech, might be understood by the consensual historical symbolic importance of the song, the singing of Grândola by the protesters highlighted not only its historical meaning but, above all, its use as an instrument and form of struggle for a desired social change in the present.

In the months following this episode, successive protest actions took place, with the collective singing of Grândola against government members becoming regular, which led the media to term them “Grandoladas”. Among organized demonstrations or more or less spontaneous protest actions, which took place above all when a member of the government attended official events, the singing of Grândola, Vila Morena became the common denominator, establishing itself as the high point of the demonstrations that took place in Portugal during the early 2010s. The impact of “Grandoladas” during the so-called “financial crisis” ended up crossing borders, with especially the Portuguese and Spanish media highlighting the use of the song in various international contexts of protest or solidarity as happened in 2013 during the popular occupation in Puertas del Sol in Madrid and in other regions of Spain, organized following demonstrations by the 15M Civic Movement, where several groups of people also gathered to sing Grândola as a symbol of protest against the Spanish government’s austerity measures.

On the other hand, the song also had more recent reinterpretations as happened in Brussels in 2016, when sung in unison during a demonstration of solidarity and appeal for peace following the bomb attacks that took place in that city. Family members of the victims of the attack, Portuguese emigrants and other solidarity organizations that organized the vigil, referred above all to the character of unity, friendship and freedom represented by the song, moving on from a protest call for social change to an appeal for peace and brotherhood.
Conclusion

Since its origins, as a poem in honour of the workers who, with their efforts, their spirit of brotherhood and their intelligence, dynamically ran a small association in Grândola, José Afonso evoked the environment of cultural intervention, which was simultaneously political, of the resistance in the Alentejo region. Grândola, Vila Morena has been the object of various uses and resignifications over the years. The song immediately conveyed a message of equality, fraternity and popular power, which already manifested itself musically in its first recorded version in 1971 with the appeal to collective singing through its emulation of the singing practices of the Alentejo choral groups. Both the poem’s utopian proposal and its musical interpretation (repetitive, simple, with paused singing) and respective choreographic staging (arms linked and tempo marked by steps) constituted stimuli for its collective appropriation.

Before 1974, it was perceived as a song of resistance to the dictatorship by the most politically conscious sectors, a common understanding that was shared with formal and informal groups of anti-Franco militants from different regions of Spain. Its choice as a radio password confirming the start of the military operations that toppled the dictatorial regime on April 25, 1974, was particularly important for its subsequent perception in Portugal and internationally as the “anthem of the Portuguese revolution”. During the 1974/75 revolutionary process, the song gained outstanding symbolism as the representation of values not only of resistance and struggle but also of freedom and democracy, having even been the target of attempts at political appropriation by forces opposite to the convictions and the political ideas of José Afonso himself. Recorded in dozens of versions and published in several countries, in different languages and musical genres, the multiple uses of Grândola, Vila Morena to this day denote the perpetuity of its challenging potential, something well expressed in demonstrations in several European cities against the austerity policies during the 2008 economic crisis as well as its usage as an evocative and mobilizing song of unity and peace.