Argentina Santos or Maria Argentina Pinto dos Santos (6 February 1924 – 18 November 2019) was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

singer considered one of the last great

Fado Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado was ...

singers.

Life

Santos was born in the Mouraria area of

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

in 1924. She started school but left so quickly that she was illiterate and had to learn reading and writing much later. She was interested in singing but married twice and neither of her husbands approved of her singing in public. It was only after her second husband died that she was able to regain her career and her singing became popular. In 1950 she took charge of the Lisbon restaurant "Parreirinha de Alfama" which became a centre for Fado playing. In 1995 she began to appear on Portuguese television and the following year she was performing on Brazilian TV. She appeared in several European cities including appearing at the

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

. In 2005 she was given an award in Lisbon for her singing. In 2013 she was given an award (Infant D Henrique) by the Portuguese government. She died in Lisbon's Santa Maria Hospital in 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santos, Argentina 1924 births 2019 deaths Singers from Lisbon 21st-century Portuguese women singers 20th-century Portuguese women singers