Sérgio Godinho

Sérgio de Barros Godinho (; born 31 August 1945) is a Portuguese singer-songwriter, composer, actor, poet and author.

Considered one of the most influential popular musicians in Portugal, Godinho started his music career singing folk songs of música de intervenção (Portuguese protest songs) while in exile, in the years preceding the Carnation Revolution of 1974 in Portugal, and is regarded as one of the genre's major figures.

Besides his music career, Godinho is also a stage and film actor, and has released poetry and fiction books.

Early life Sérgio Godinho was born in Porto on 31 August 1945. He bought his first acoustic guitar when he was 15 years-old.

He lived in Porto during his youth. He started by studying economics in university, by recommendation from his father, but decided to quit on his second year. At the age of 20, he decided to leave Portugal, motivated by a desire of emancipation and also to avoid the conscription for the Portuguese Colonial War. He went to study psychology in Geneva, where he had Jean Piaget as one of his professors. After two years, in 1967, still unsatisfied with the path chosen, Godinho left the course and decided to dedicate himself to the arts.

In the following months, Godinho traveled across different places in France, Italy and the Netherlands. He then moved to Paris, where he worked as a stage actor, being cast for the French version of the musical Hair, and started writing songs. In Paris, he befriended José Mário Branco, a fellow Portuguese songwriter, who is nowadays also regarded as one of the greatest singer-songwriters of música de intervenção. He also there met his first wife, Sheila, while working on Hair. He was living in Paris during the May 68 protests.

After his first recordings in 1971, he did more travels in the Netherlands, Canada and Brazil. In Brazil, he joined the theater group Living Theatre, and was arrested for two and a half months after taking part in a protest show in Minas Gerais. He returned to Paris to perform in another season of Hair and then moved to the Netherlands for a short time. Godinho wrote the lyrics to four tracks in Branco's first album, Mudam-se os Tempos, Mudam-se as Vontades, released that same year. Branco produced and played in Godinho's first EP and first album.

Godinho's first release was the EP Romance de um Dia na Estrada in 1971. The four songs in this EP would also appear in his first album, Os Sobreviventes, which was recorded in April 1971 and was released in 1972 in Portugal. He recorded his second album Pré-Histórias in 1972, and it was likewise released in the following year in Portugal.

Because of the political messages in some of its lyrics, Os Sobreviventes and Pré-Historias were targeted by the censorship of the Estado Novo regime, at a time in which the censorship from Marcelo Caetano's administration paradoxically wished to become softer but also more controlling of pop music that criticized the regime. Os Sobreviventes was removed from stores several times.

Godinho was living in Canada when the Carnation Revolution happened in Portugal. He started the recording of his third album in Canada and later finished it in Portugal.

1974–1980: Return to Portugal Godinho returned to Portugal in September 1974. He finished and released his third album, À Queima-Roupa, that year.

In 1976, he released De Pequenino Se Torce O Destino, an album with production by Fausto Bordalo Dias, with lyrics marked by Portugal's transition to democracy in 1975.

His last albums in the 1970s are Pano-Cru, from 1978, and Campolide, from 1979. In these albums, Godinho starts a transition to less politically charged lyrics and singing more about everyday life. Recordings of the Campo Pequeno shows were released in the live album Três Cantos: Ao Vivo.

In 2011 Godinho released the album Mútuo Consentimento. During 2015 and 2016, Godinho played shows together with Jorge Palma. The show at the Theatro Circo in Braga was released in the live album Juntos – Ao Vivo no Theatro Circo, in 2015.

His latest studio album, Nação Valente, was released in 2018.

Personal life Sérgio Godinho has three children.

Discography

Studio albums

Os Sobreviventes (1972) Pré-Histórias (1973) À Queima-Roupa (1974) De Pequenino Se Torce O Destino (1976) Pano Cru (1978) Campolide (1979) Kilas o Mau da Fita (original soundtrack) (1980) Canto da Boca (1981) Coincidências (1983) Salão de Festas (1984) Na Vida Real (1986) Sérgio Godinho Canta Com Os Amigos do Gaspar (1988) Aos Amores (1989) Tinta Permanente (1993) Domingo no Mundo (1997) Lupa (2000) Ligação Directa (2006) Mútuo Consentimento (2011) Nação Valente (2018)

Extended plays

Romance de um Dia na Estrada (1971)

Live albums

Escritor de Canções (1990) Noites Passadas: O Melhor De Sérgio Godinho Ao Vivo (1995) Rivolitz: O Melhor De Sérgio Godinho Ao Vivo 2 (1998) Nove e Meia no Maria Matos (2008) Ao Vivo no São Luiz (2020)

Collaboration albums

A Confederação (original soundtrack, with José Mário Branco and Fausto) (1978) Afinidades (live album, with Clã) (2001) O Irmão do Meio (with various artists) (2003) Três Cantos: Ao Vivo (with José Mário Branco and Fausto) (2009) Caríssimas Canções (live album, with Hélder Gonçalves, Manuela Azevedo and Nuno Rafael) (2013) Juntos - Ao Vivo no Theatro Circo (live album, with Jorge Palma) (2015)

Compilation albums

Era Uma Vez Um Rapaz (1985) Biografias do Amor (2001) Setenta e Um - Oitenta e Seis: O Melhor de Sérgio Godinho (2004) 1989 - 2014: O Melhor de Sérgio Godinho (2017)