OPENDEMOCRACY (28.8.2019)
2019 got off to a bad start in Portugal. In January, the leader of a far-right group – who spent 12 years in prison for his role in a racist murder and other hate crimes – was invited to speak on one of Portugal’s most popular TV talk shows. On air, he argued that the country needs a new dictator.
Two weeks later, a video of police violence in Bairro Jamaica, a predominantly black neighbourhood in Lisbon’s suburbs, went viral. The next day, hundreds of mostly black demonstrators protested in the city centre against racist police violence. Police responded with rubber bullets.
Tiago Lila and João Caçador, musicians and activists in a group called Fado Bicha (roughly translated: ‘Queer Fado’), told me they could not stay silent. Lila took a classic Portuguese song and rewrote its lyrics to challenge the violence around them. Caçador picked up his electric guitar.
“Lisbon, don’t be racist,” sings Lila in a video posted on Youtube in February, and since then watched tens of thousands of times. Caçador sits on a living room couch, clutching his guitar. “Revisit your history”, the song’s lyrics continue. “Let’s stop glorifying an empire built on slavery”.
The guitar chords are well known in Portugal, taken from the classic fado song “Lisbon don’t be French”. But the lyrics have been changed to reflect on structural racism and colonial history. This is what Lila and Caçador do: transform traditional fado classics into anti-discrimination anthems.