Silence 4 were 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 ...

band, formed in 1996, who mostly sung in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. They released two albums to high critical acclaim, '' Silence Becomes It'' (1998) and '' Only Pain Is Real'' (2000). The band never officially disbanded, but went on an undetermined hiatus from 2001 to 2013, when their members decided to reunite for a brief tour after Sofia Lisboa underwent cancer treatment. Lead singer

David Fonseca David Fonseca (, born on 14 June 1973, in Leiria) is a Portuguese musician, singer-songwriter and photographer. As a musician, he plays several instruments, including acoustic guitar and organ. He is recognized for his successful music career a ...

is currently undertaking a solo career.

History

Formation

The band's genesis took place in 1995. After good feedback from showing some

demo tape A demo (shortened from "demonstration") is a song or group of songs typically recorded for limited circulation or for reference use, rather than for general public release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas in a fixed for ...

s to a music shop owner in

Leiria Leiria (; cel-x-proto, ɸlāryo) is a city and municipality in the Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat of its own distr ...

approached Sofia Lisboa with the idea of forming a band. That idea only materialized one year later, when both of them invited Rui Costa to the band — who suggested they turn off the

amplifiers An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It may increase the power significantly, or its main effect may be to boost the v ...

and play acoustic, in ''silence''. They won a 500,000

escudos The escudo (Portuguese language, Portuguese: 'shield') is a unit of currency historically used in Portugal and its Portuguese Empire, colonies in South America, Asia, and Africa. It was originally worth 16 silver . The Cape Verdean escudo and ...

(roughly 2500

euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...

s) prize in a band festival, which was spent totally in making demos. When presenting these to

labels A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed dir ...

, the answer was always the same: ''"Singing in English? No way!"'' Refusing to balk at the demand of recording totally in

, they ended up recording a

cover Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

Erasure Erasure () is an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1985, consisting of lead vocalist and songwriter Andy Bell with songwriter, producer and keyboardist Vince Clarke, previously known as co-founder of the band Depeche Mode and a membe ...

's '' A Little Respect'', which was included in the compilation Sons de Todas as Cores (released in 1998), giving it massive airplay and good critical response.

''Silence Becomes It''

Polygram PolyGram N.V. was a multinational entertainment company and major music record label formerly based in the Netherlands. It was founded in 1962 as the Grammophon-Philips Group by Dutch corporation Philips and German corporation Siemens, to be a ...

(now

Universal Universal is the adjective for universe. Universal may also refer to: Companies * NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company ** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal ** Universal TV, a ...

) finally accepted to work with them, but with some restrictions: minimum budget (5 million escudos — 25 thousand euros), and they would only receive

royalties A royalty payment is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. Royalties are typically agreed upon as a percentage of gross or net revenues derived from the use of an asset o ...

after selling 10 thousand records. The resulting album was '' Silence Becomes It'', which was certified ''

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Platinu ...

'' 5 times (over 200 thousand records sold), spending months on top of the Portuguese

charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabul ...

. A national tour ensued, with 90 concerts in 6 months. On December 18, the legendary

Pavilhão Atlântico Altice Arena (formerly MEO Arena; also referred to by its original name, Pavilhão Atlântico) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Lisbon, Portugal. The arena is among the largest indoor arenas in Europe and the largest in Portugal with a capacit ...

concert took place.

''Only Pain Is Real''

They kept touring in 1999, though with less concerts. Then came a period of absence, when they "escaped" to London. It was there, at the

Ridge Farm Studio Ridge Farm Studio was one of the earliest residential recording studios in the United Kingdom. The studio operated for over twenty-five years and had artists, musicians, and producers from all over the world record and produce music there. The ...

, that their second album, '' Only Pain Is Real'', was born. The album was presented in Leiria, in 2000, and took 2 weeks to reach platinum certification. Then came another tour, with over 100 concerts in one year, ending with two unique concerts at the

Coliseu dos Recreios The Coliseu dos Recreios (also known as Coliseu de Lisboa) is a multi-purpose auditorium located in Lisbon, Portugal. History The main building was constructed within a metal lattice by Francisco Goulard between 1888 and 1890. While the facade ...

Lisboa 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. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...

, on December 19 and 20.Story and profile

Members

- lead

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

* Sofia Lisboa - backing vocals * Rui Costa -

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

* Tozé Pedrosa -

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

Discography

Studio albums

* '' Silence Becomes It'' (1998) * '' Only Pain Is Real'' (2000)

Live albums

* ''Ao Vivo - Coliseu dos Recreios'' (2004) *''SongBook Live 2014'' (2014)

References

{{Authority control Portuguese musical groups Golden Globes (Portugal) winners