On 29 March 1974, less than a month before the revolution, the 1st Portuguese Song Meeting (I Encontro da Canção Portuguesa) filled the Coliseu. Censorship had cut songs, but the audience sang “Grândola, Vila Morena” in chorus and shouted “Down with repression!” (abaixo a repressão!).
The Coliseu dos Recreios opened on 14 August 1890.1 On 29 March 1974 it was the stage for the 1st Portuguese Song Meeting (I Encontro da Canção Portuguesa), with José Afonso, José Carlos Ary dos Santos, Fernando Tordo, Manuel Freire, Fausto, Adriano Correia de Oliveira, José Jorge Letria and Vitorino, as Carlos Gil’s photographs at the Casa Comum show.2
According to Wikipedia, the censors took a month to examine the lyrics and banned thirty songs and poems. The hall sold out and thousands of people were left in the street; the PIDE/DGS, the censors and the PSP kept watch and took notes.3 The 50 Years Commemorative Commission describes the meeting as a cultural event that was, above all, an act of protest against the dictatorship.4
José Afonso sang “Grândola, Vila Morena” (Grândola, swarthy town), one of the songs that had escaped the “blue pencil”, and the whole hall sang with him; at the end, thousands of people shouted “Down with repression!” (abaixo a repressão!).5 Less than a month later, at 00:20 on 25 April, the same song was played on Rádio Renascença as the signal of the Armed Forces Movement. Wikipedia links the choice to the night at the Coliseu and says there were captains of the Movement in the audience.3
José Afonso sings “Grândola, Vila Morena” (Grândola, swarthy town) at the Coliseu dos Recreios concert of 29 January 1983, in an excerpt published by the José Afonso Association. It was one of the singer’s last great concerts, when he was already ill, and the song that had served as the signal for 25 April was sung together with the audience.
Original page Licença padrão do YouTube — embed permitido pelo canal oficial da Associação José Afonso
Associação José Afonso, on YouTube. The player only connects to that site when you press “Watch”.
José Afonso sings “Venham Mais Cinco” (Let five more come) at the Coliseu dos Recreios concert of 29 January 1983, in an excerpt published by the José Afonso Association. This was the song the MFA first asked for as the signal, in April 1974, and which the internal censorship of Rádio Renascença did not let through.
Original page Licença padrão do YouTube — embed permitido pelo canal oficial da Associação José Afonso
Associação José Afonso, on YouTube. The player only connects to that site when you press “Watch”.
José Afonso sings “A Morte Saiu à Rua” (Death Went Out into the Street), the song in which he evoked the sculptor José Dias Coelho, killed by the PIDE in 1961, at the Coliseu dos Recreios concert of 29 January 1983. The excerpt was published by the José Afonso Association.
Original page Licença padrão do YouTube — embed permitido pelo canal oficial da Associação José Afonso
Associação José Afonso, on YouTube. The player only connects to that site when you press “Watch”.
A Lisbon City Council report on the night when, forty years later, the Coliseu dos Recreios recalled the 1st Portuguese Song Meeting (I Encontro da Canção Portuguesa) of March 1974, which, according to the City Council, inspired the soldiers of April in their choice of the signal. The hall sang “Grândola” once again.
Original page Licença padrão do YouTube — embed permitido pelo canal oficial da Câmara Municipal de Lisboa
Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, on YouTube. The player only connects to that site when you press “Watch”.
Sérgio Godinho sings “Eh Zeca Afonso” at the Coliseu dos Recreios, in 1985, in a video from his official channel. The description lists the musicians who accompanied him, among them Emanuel Frazão on piano and Carlos Guerreiro on vocals and various instruments.
Original page Licença padrão do YouTube — embed permitido pelo canal oficial de Sérgio Godinho
Sérgio Godinho (canal oficial), on YouTube. The player only connects to that site when you press “Watch”.
In other archives
These can only be viewed on each archive’s own website.
The date: 29 March 1974 (Wikipedia, which cites Madeira, 2015; dated photographs at the Casa Comum) or 28 March (chronology of the 25 April Association).
The number of banned songs (thirty), the crowd in the street and the presence of MFA captains in the audience have only been read in Wikipedia.
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