Released in 2007, Abril marked the 20th anniversary of José Afonso’s passing. The album and the live show it inspired gained renewed momentum in 2024, as part of the celebrations marking the 50th anniversary of Portugal’s Carnation Revolution, and again in 2025 with the release of the album Mulheres de Abril (Women of April), which received the José Afonso Award and the PLAY Award for Best Traditional Music Album. This project offers “a feminine perspective” on José Afonso’s work through Cristina Branco’s interpretations, with musical direction and arrangements by pianist Ricardo Dias. It is a captivating performance featuring timeless classics such as Menino d’Oiro, Redondo Vocábulo, Índios da Meia Praia, Teresa Torga and Endechas a Bárbara Escrava.

Since Post Scriptum (2000), Cristina Branco’s second album, João Paulo Esteves da Silva and the singer have been sharing unique live experiences, seen and heard by distant audiences, yet never recorded. Thus arose the genesis of Amoras numa Tarde de Outono, a new album released in 2022, which seeks to document, like a photographic record, the work the duo has been weaving on stage over the past 20 years. This project is presented live in its original formation – a recital of piano and voice – recreating its simultaneously intimate and kaleidoscopic atmosphere, somewhere between fado and traditional music.

Cristina Branco, guitarist Bernardo Couto, and the French ensemble Des Équilibres joined forces for Fado em Movimento, a cycle of four concerts conceived by the ensemble, consisting of an exploration of the fado universe in dialogue with other musical genres. It featured original compositions by Florentine Mulsant and Fátima Fonte, and texts by Gonçalo M. Tavares. The show included two sold-out performances at Casa da Música (Porto), as well as at Ferme du Buisson (France) and Boulogne-sur-Mer (France). In addition to the concerts, the program also included an artistic residency with all the performers at Casa da Música.

‘Mais que Fado’ – which means ‘more than fado’ – is a unique show that brings together the interpretative elegance of Cristina Branco’s voice, the inspiration and skill of the pianist Mário Laginha and the greatness of the Espinho Jazz Orchestra, here directed by Daniel Dias and Paulo Perfeito.

The show has already had several presentations, from which we highlight the two dates at Auditório de Espinho, in December 2021, and the concert at Casa da Cultura de Ílhavo, in February 2022.

In a celebration of music as a form of communication, CISMO (Cister Music Orchestra) proposes an unprecedented musical journey. In an era of multiple sonic identities frequently overlapping, CISMO presents an exercise in creative freedom through musical juxtaposition. Four composers were challenged to reimagine Cristina Branco’s repertoire, without losing its language and musical identity, and without resorting to mere rearrangements. The new compositions aim to renew our perception of the song itself. The concert was first presented in June 2022, at the historic Monastery of Alcobaça.

During her career, Cristina Branco has created a path of her own. Fado is one of the starting points that has led her to partnerships with poets, authors and composers. The international expansion of her talent resulted in an assiduity between airports, train stations, endless car trips, constant temperature differences, dressing rooms, hotels and waiting hours.

The most obvious effect of these adventures on the road happened with her instrument: the voice. Upon her return to Portugal she had a medical check-up that changed her life: “Mineral water is mostly acidic, (…) and contributes to that burning sensation in the throat!”. That was the changing point. After researching, she started a very unassuming alkaline regimen, improving her diet and that of her family.

From there it was a small step to take these new habits to the road with her usual partners (musicians and technicians). That’s when the idea of ‘RoadCook’ came up. A set of practical, quick and healthy recipes to be prepared anywhere, wherever the road takes us. A special and unexpected sharing from Cristina Branco.