Tell us what you think:

G L Herfordshire UK
I saw her in the Purcell Room, twice and have seen her every time she comes to the UK. I speak no Portuguese, but I don't need it to feel the emotion. Unique.

U. Rhodes-Malin, Gibraltar
Dearest Jon Lusk,Mariza was 'lucky' the FIRST time around! In 2003 she was nominated for the ‘European’ award and she won it. Not that I think luck had anything to do with it! Sheer brilliance amongst many other aspects was responsible for that!!!

Sergio - London
Yes Mariza is a great singer and she deserves all the credit she gets, after all she's working hard touring and taking her Fado across the world. She's good and very talented, but she's still young and needs to mature in her art. I've seen mariza singing and I do think she's great and very talented and she will take fado to new audiences. Amalia was a genious who brought fado to the world, reinvented gave it life and identity. her art was her pureness and emotional honesty on her singing. She toured as far as Australia, the Old Soviet Union, Far East, South and North America when todays technologies and mass music distribution weren't available . She was and always will be the best fado singer .. she lived fado and fado lived in her!

victor mera deleage
I'VE NOT HEARD A VOICE LIKE HERS IN THE LAST THIRTY YEARS. GONNA HAVE TO MOVE TO LISBON.

rob wallace UK
Stunning performer on record and especially live the emotion that she can get into her voice unbeleivable

Allan in England
Thanks to Radio 3 I `discovered` Mariza, her voice is captivating even though I speak not one word of Portugese

geoff.warren
This lady is a wonderful counterbalance to my beloved Eton Choirbook period!

ricardo rivadeneira v.
Wonderful the concert in Lisbon, the best filling and song in the spirit of fado, a flower in our desert. Thank you.

Fernando Garcia, London
Comparing Mariza with Amalia is unfair. Vocally, musically, emotionally I wouldn't be so sure about who would come tops. Yes, Amalia will always be the Queen of Fado - but even she was often criticized for not singing the real thing; and for losing its essence by bringing Fado to a mass audience! So, Fado has always been a changing and changeable thing and Mariza has brought it full circle by reminding us about the roots of Fado (from Lisbon's immigrants, who fed African music into Lisbon's fledgling urban "blues"). And by re-shaping Fado to suit her life and her experience and her musicality, perhaps Maria has saved Fado by bringing it to the masses and yet remaining 100% true to Fado: the changing song of Lisbon's streets and tavernas. Neither Lisbon nor Fado is as insular as some would have us believe.

Joana Silva, Telford
"world’s most famous fado singer" is a bit of an over-statement, in the least. Yes, she is the most successful of her generation, but does not compare to the success enjoyed from "The Great Lady of Fado" - Amalia. If anything, she owes a great deal to Amalia, singing her established and world- famous reportoir, as well as having many famous friends, who have help to forge her career and keep a stronghold on Portuguese Popular Music. Undoubtedly, Mariza is very marketable and oozes appeal, but just listen to a classic fado song sang by both ladies, and there is no comparison to be made. Mariza is extraordinary, but Amalia goes beyond that, with the love, technique and dedication she was able to transmit, not to mention her personal history which contributed in large part to the establishment of Fado as "the song of Lisbon". Unlike Mariza, but like Edith Piaff, Amalia had great poets, lovers and writers create music for her, which were based on her life story, personal tragedies and love of life. After all, Fado is not the song of the middle-classes, it is the song of "povo que lavas no rio"... Mariza will have this one day perhaps, but her time has not come yet!... she needs to mature a bit more, and suffer for her art, which is to sing " a Alma do povo Portugues"... (sing the soul of the Portuguese people). Only then can I accept as a Portuguese Citizen that she is "world’s most famous fado singer". However, I think Mariza herself is very comfortable with that status.