José Albano Cid de Ferreira Tavares (born 4 February 1942) is a Portuguese

singer 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 withou ...

, composer and

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

. Internationally, Cid is best known for his 1978 progressive rock album'' 10,000 Anos Depois Entre Vénus e Marte'' and for representing Portugal at the

Eurovision Song Contest 1980 The Eurovision Song Contest 1980 was the 25th edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in The Hague, Netherlands, and was organised by host broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) – which agreed to stage the event af ...

with the song " Um grande, grande amor". With a career spanning more than 60 years, Cid has been awarded 25 Silver, eight Gold and three Platinum records in Portugal. In 2019, Cid received a

Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award The Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award is an honor presented annually by the Latin Recording Academy, the same organization that distributes the Latin Grammy Awards, to commend performers "who have made contributions of outstanding artistic ...

, becoming the second Portuguese singer, after

Carlos do Carmo Carlos Manuel de Ascenção do Carmo de Almeida ComIH (21 December 1939 – 1 January 2021), better known as Carlos do Carmo, was a Portuguese fado singer. The son of Lucília do Carmo, a well-known ''fadista'', do Carmo began his career in fad ...

, to receive the honour.

Early life

Cid was born in 1942 in Chamusca, son of Francisco Albano Coutinho Ferreira and Fernanda Tavares Salter Cid Ferreira Gameiro. At age 6, he moved with his family to the municipality of Anadia. His professional career began when he started a covers band called ''Os Babies'' ("The Babies"), in 1956. In 1960, Cid began Law School at the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The u ...

(FDUC). During his time in Coimbra, he created the musical group ''Conjunto Orfeão'' with José Niza, Proença de Carvalho and Rui Ressurreição. Cid subsequently joined the bands ''Trio Los Dos'' and ''Os Claves''. In 1965, Cid dropped out of school, without having completed his first year, and left for Lisbon to attend the National Institute of Physical Education (INEF). One of his colleagues at INEF was the brother of Michel, a member of the band ''Conjunto Mistério''. After an audition, he was invited to join the group, later renamed Quarteto 1111. Cid did not graduate from INEF either, because he was called to serve as an officer in the Portuguese Air Force. At the air base of Ota, he was a gym teacher from 1968 to 1972. His days were spent teaching in the mornings, and rehearsing during the afternoons, playing music in a garage. On the weekends, he performed with Quarteto 1111.

Quarteto 1111

José Cid co-founded Quarteto 1111, the first band to take a new approach to pop-rock music in Portugal, with a modern line-up and instrumentation. Quarteto 1111 was the first

symphonic rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Initi ...

band in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. Between 1968-69 they received media attention from a hit single, "El Rei D. Sebastião", a song about the loss of the Portuguese king D. Sebastião, who supposedly died in the fields of Morocco during the battle of Alcazarquivir (a loss that would eventually lead to Portugal losing its independence from Spain). All the myths related with the return of King Sebastian – a quite anchored Portuguese myth – were fairly treated in this song. The harpsichord made its first appearance in Portuguese rock music. A single with the English version of the song was released in Great Britain. José Cid was the band leader, composer, keyboard and lead singer. The rest of the band had a classic formation influenced by the usual Beatles line-up, but with a sound and song structure reminiscent of

The Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1964, initially consisting of keyboardist Mike Pinder, multi-instrumentalist Ray Thomas, guitarist Denny Laine, drummer Graeme Edge and bassist Clint Warwick. The g ...

. The following album continued in the same vein, combining melodic songs with new "progressive" instruments, namely the Mellotron. Later on the band evolved to the late 1970s pop sound.

Progressive rock

Eurovision Song Contest 1980 postcards - José Cid 07

Cid explored

with Cantamos Pessoas Vivas (1974), Vida – Sons do Quotidiano (1976) and 10,000 Anos Depois Entre Venus E Marte (1978). Most of the songs, influenced by a sort of mix combining

and Pink Floyd

psychedelia Psychedelia refers to the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic music and style of dress during that era. This was primarily generated by people who used psychedelic ...

, were composed by Cid, some of them with the help of guitar player

Mike Sergeant Michael Sergeant is an English author, communications consultant and former journalist who worked for the BBC, Sky News, Reuters and CNN as a political correspondent, business correspondent and general news reporter. He worked as a foreign corres ...

and drummer Ramon Galarza. Another (unfinished) project from this lineup, Vozes do Além, explored the "Life after Death / Reincarnation" theme. Featured in the record are a poem by Natália Correia ("Creio") and two from

Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (6 November 1919 – 2 July 2004) was a Portuguese poet and writer. Her remains have been entombed in the National Pantheon since 2014. Life and career Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen was born on 6 November ...

("Quando" and "Um Dia"). Presently, work on this album has resumed, with the original lineup and the addition of younger musicians.

OTI Festival

In 1979 José Cid was selected by RTP to represent Portugal in the eighth edition of the

OTI Festival OTI Festival ( es, Festival OTI de la Canción, pt, Festival OTI da Canção), often known simply as La OTI, was an international song competition, organised annually between 1972 and 2000 by the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI) ...

, which was held in Caracas,

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

. He competed with the song "Na cabana junto à praia" (In a little house next to the beach), which was well received in the festival to the point that he managed to get the third place with 32 points. In 1981, one year after his participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, he was again selected by the Portuguese broadcaster to compete in the tenth edition of the

, which was held in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

. This time he was not as successful as in his previous attempt in the Latin-American song contest and he got the tenth place scoring 14 points.

Eurovision

The pop inclinations of José Cid led him to create, during the first half of the 1970s, a 4 piece vocal pop group ( Green Windows) and to participate in the 1974

Festival da Canção Festival da Canção (; "Song Festival") or Festival RTP da Canção is the name given to the national festival, produced and broadcast by Rádio e Televisão de Portugal (RTP) to choose the for the Eurovision Song Contest. It was first held in ...

with ''Imagens'' and ''No Dia Em Que O Rei Fez Anos''. He also participated in the

with the song Um grande, grande amor.

Present day

José Cid himself made a career as a songwriter and singer, and remains a popular and active musician in Portugal. His latest album "Menino Prodígio", released in 2015, was awarded the ''Pedro Osório Award'' for the best album of the year by the ''Sociedade Portuguesa de Autore''s (SPA) (English: Portuguese Society of Authors). In 2016, Cid released his first album in Spain. He received a

in 2019.

Personal life

José Cid married Gabriela Carrascalão in 2013. Carrascalão is an East Timorese journalist and artist/painter. Cid and Gabriela live in a farm in Mogofores, municipality of Anadia. José Cid has one daughter, Ana Sofia Infante Pedroso (born 1964) from his first marriage with Emilia Infante Pedroso. Ana Sofia worked briefly with her father, but they are currently estranged.

Discography

With Quarteto 1111

with Green Windows

Solo work

References

External links

José Cid Discography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cid, Jose 1942 births Living people People from Santarém District Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1980 Eurovision Song Contest entrants of 1998 Eurovision Song Contest entrants for Portugal 20th-century Portuguese male singers Portuguese songwriters Male songwriters Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Golden Globes (Portugal) winners