Portal do Fado

Alain Oulman was born in Lisbon, on May, 1928. Soon he was found of books and music and at this time it has started a golden decade to musical composition.
In the 60’s Amália Rodrigues was the singer of his compositions.

In 1962, he composes a record with poems of Luís Macedo, David Mourão-Ferreira called “Busto”. After that work other records were composed with different poems by Portuguese poets: Luís de Camões, Alexandre O´Neill, José Régio, Pedro Homem de Mello, Bernardim Ribeiro, Ary dos Santos, Manuel Alegre, the Brazilian Cecília Meireles, among others.

Some years later, Amália Rodrigues on an interview said: “I was acquainted of great poets, because Alain has a high education. He has been composing and also has been looking for poems to have material to his records. He has spent a lot of time with me. He did not influence me, but for a long time, I was glad with his lyrics. We have worked a lot.” (Santos, 187:150).

In 1980, another excellent work of Alain and Amália named “Com que Voz” was recorded. In 1971, this record won the Italian Record Critics Prize and in 1975 won the Grand Prize of Paris and the Record Grand Prize. He was known as an opponent to the regime of Salazar, and because of that he was arrested by PIDE (the police state) and later on he went to exile. He settled down in Paris and died there on March of 1990.

In 1992, on the occasion of the Music and Harbours Festival some artists as Katia Guerreiro, José Fontes Rocha, Paulo Parreira, António Pinho Vargas and João Mário Veiga, had paid homage to the composer. In 2006, in the annual meeting named Festa do Avante once more the composer Alain is remembered by a new artist generation: Carla Pires, Liana and António Zambujo, who had paid him homage