Elbphilharmonie Innerview: Sara Correia

Inwards – in the »Elbphilharmonie Innerviews«, artists explore the Elbphilharmonie in their own unique ways, letting their thoughts run free. The result: special insights into the spaces of the concert hall and a rare opportunity to get to know the artists personally beyond the stage.

»Singing fado outside of Portugal gives my art a special significance because it means sharing the soul of my people,« says Sara Correia. In this Elbphilharmonie Innerview, she talks about her role models, about the importance of the famous Portuguese singing tradition and about her roots, which she vows she will never forget.

The Elbphilharmonie’s »Innerviews« series is supported by our Principal Sponsor Julius Bär.

»I never had to look for the fado,« says Sara Correia, whose family includes more than one fadista. »In my grandparents’ house, you wouldn’t hear anything else,« explains the Lisbon-born musician. As a child, she would listen to fado cassettes over and over, learning every word. When she was nine, she gave her first performance in one of the cult fado venues in the coastal quarter of Marvila.

Just a few years later, she won her first singing competition, and she now travels the world as one of her nation’s leading singers. Fado star Antonio Zambujo sang a duet with Correia on her latest album »Do Coração« (From the Heart) – and he can’t stop raving about his young colleague: »I’ve always loved listening to her sing. Sara is good for our health.«

In May 2023, Sara Correia gave her debut concert in the Elbphilharmonie. »It’s going to be like a home game,« she said beforehand, »because Hamburg, like Lisbon, is a port city, full of songs from all over the world, meeting there like the Tejo and the Atlantic«.

It’s no surprise that the singer was immediately embraced by the Hamburg audience. With her warm yet powerful voice, she sang of pain and grief, love and longing – and always with a dose of quintessential fado melancholy.