Page 101 - The Singing Contest 2019 Magazine

Who are... John & Lisa Santos

of music, she met, States, Brazil and
then fell in love with, Canada and marketed
John Santos and in throughout the world.
1985, they joined The tracks “Ai que
forces to become the bom” and “Ninguém
Duo Santos, concen- nos detém” made
trating on working the charts in Portugal
on the cruise ships of and “Desgarrada do
the Princess Cruises Amor”, in Australia
line, on the well- and Hawaii. Variety Club Telethon with
known “Love Boat”. Burton Cummings
They married on With Lisa’s natural
John and Lisa in Hawaii August 20, 1988. flair for learning Portuguese songs without knowing the
language, Duo Santos toured Portuguese communities
In the 90s, they set off on world spread throughout the world and
tours that took them to 302 cities with great success. In Montreal,
scattered over 42 countries on 4 John and Lisa became friends with
continents. In Portugal, Lisa was portuguese guitarist Artur Gaipo
very taken by popular Portuguese and had the privilege of meet-
songs, singing them in her own ing and working with Amália
style. John harnessed Lisa’s apti- Rodrigues. Lisa Santos was captiv-
tude for and skill in learning the ated by Amália, her voice and her
words and sounds of Portugal, fados. She became enthusiastic
teaching her to sing Portuguese about Amália’s fado songs, learn-
songs with him. Thus was born a José Mário Coelho, John, Lisa and Filipe Neves ed them, sang them, initially not
woman of “Shakespearean” ori- understanding their language but
gins giving voice to the language of Camões. Though she responding to their feeling of nostalgia. At the request
still didn’t speak Portuguese, she could sing Portuguese of a friend, Dinis Paiva and at John’s insistence, she re-
melodies to perfection. Together, they recorded 12 CDs corded an album of traditional fados —”Também can-
and 3 videos, published in Portugal, Venezuela, United to o fado”— with its outstanding homage to the Diva,

Duo Santos in Australia On RTP with Marco Paulo Artur Gaipo, Lisa and John

www.TheSingingContest.com The Singing Contest 2019 99