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

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and

record producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

. 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 Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in The Hague, Netherlands, and was organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (NOS), which agreed to stage the eve ...

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 record Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music Sound recording and reproduction, recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video ...

s 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 (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 fado fol ...

, to receive the honour.

Early life

Cid was born in 1942 in

Chamusca Chamusca () is a municipality in Santarém District in Portugal. The population in 2021 was 8,530, in an area of 746.01 km2. The present Mayor is Paulo Queimado, elected by the Socialist Party. The municipal holiday is Ascension Day. Cli ...

, 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; , ) is a Public university, 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 university ...

(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 Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

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 The Portuguese Air Force () is the air force, aerial warfare force of Portugal. Locally it is referred to by the acronym FAP but internationally is often referred to by the acronym PRTAF. It is the youngest of the three branches of the Portuguese ...

. 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) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed "progressive pop", the ...

band in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

. Between 1968 and 1969 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 Myth is a genre of folklore consisting primarily of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society. For scholars, this is very different from the vernacular usage of the term "myth" that refers to a belief that is not true. Instead, the ...

– were fairly treated in this song. The

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

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 The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...

line-up, but with a sound and song structure reminiscent of

The Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in May 1964. The band initially consisted of Graeme Edge (drums), Denny Laine (guitar/vocals), Mike Pinder (keyboards/vocals), Ray Thomas (multi-instrumentalist/vocals) and Clint W ...

. The following album continued in the same vein, combining melodic songs with new "progressive" instruments, namely the

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...

. Later on the band evolved to the late 1970s pop sound.

Progressive rock

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 Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

psychedelia Psychedelia usually refers to a Aesthetics, style or aesthetic that is resembled in the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience produced by certain psychoactive substances. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic ...

, were composed by Cid, some of them with the help of guitar player Mike Sergeant 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 Natália de Oliveira Correia, Order of St. James of the Sword, GOSE, Order of Liberty, GOL (13 September 1923 – 16 March 1993) was a Portuguese intellectual, poet and social activist, as well as the author of the official lyrics of the "H ...

("Creio") and two from Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen ("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 (, ), often known simply as La OTI, was an international song competition, organised annually between 1972 and 2000 by the Organización de Televisión Iberoamericana (OTI), featuring participants representing primarily Ibero-Americ ...

, which was held in

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. 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 The Eurovision Song Contest (), often known simply as Eurovision, is an international Music competition, song competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) among its members since 1956. Each participating broadcaster ...

, he was again selected by the Portuguese broadcaster to compete in the tenth edition of the

, which was held in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. 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 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. 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. José Cid is a liberal monarchist and openly and vigorously defends the Portuguese monarchist cause. In 2022, he said:

"I am a monarchist, but I am not a monarchist of this PPM ( Monarchist People's Party), mind you. Being a progressive monarchist is simple. It is what Sá Carneiro did not have the courage to assume, although he was married to a Swede, to follow the countries of northern Europe, the least corrupt, the most cultured, the best living countries in the world – and the most boring because they must be full of snow now. We have the best people in the world, the best climate in the world, the best gastronomy in the world, the best shape in the world because we have endured amazing things, from a
regicide Regicide is the purposeful killing of a monarch or sovereign of a polity and is often associated with the usurpation of power. A regicide can also be the person responsible for the killing. The word comes from the Latin roots of ''regis'' ...
, two dictatorships, the Salazarist and the Marcelista, and another one very close to a gentleman who won with an absolute majority and who walks around on the loose in
Ericeira Ericeira () is a civil parish and seaside community on the western coast of Portugal (in Mafra municipality, located 35km northwest of the center of Lisbon, about 45km by road) considered the surfing capital of Europe. It is also one of only two ...
eference to Socialist Party's former Prime Minister of Portugal, José Sócrates]."

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 20th-century Portuguese male singers Portuguese songwriters Male songwriters Latin Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Golden Globes (Portugal) winners Portuguese monarchists Eurovision Song Contest entrants