Claudia Aurora

Your new favourite fado singer

Some things take time. Growing up in the countryside surrounding the Portuguese city of Porto, Claudia Aurora lived on a diet of hard-nosed rock music, in particular the records of Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young and Led Zep. It was only when she upped sticks and moved to Bristol nearly a decade ago that a latent appreciation of fado - the folk-blues of her homeland that, perhaps appropriately, resonates with highly emotional themes of loss and longing - began to develop. And Claudia's more than made amends in the intervening years, effortlessly gliding towards fado's top table with each syllable uttered by her traffic-stopping voice every bit as beguiling as the work of her compatriots Mariza and Ana Moura. Not only was Claudia's debut album, last year's Silencio, the first fado record cut in the UK in more than half a century, it also announced an impressive new talent. Great things clearly come to those who wait.

(Biography written by Nige Tassell 2012)