The (Un)translatability of Portuguese Fado

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So-called 'world music' has become increasingly important both artistically and commercially, underpinning a global resurgence of interest in both the voice of 'authentic' folk music and the possibility of fusion forms. And yet, the traditional Portuguese genre of fado remains largely unknown outside the Lusophone world, notwithstanding its centrality in a Portuguese conception of national identity and as a commodification of that identity to tourists. It is precisely because of its accorded status as an authentic marker of a unique identity that fado, as Portugal's "national song", has tended to attract the tag of "untranslatable". This practice-led thesis proposes to interrogate this perceived untranslatability as a label predicated upon a perceived inseparability of form and content, as is frequently the case with highly poetic forms, as well as the supposed untranslatability of the emotion saudade - included in Cassin's The Dictionary of Untranslatables (2014), as an apparent representation of the essence of the Portuguese soul and the underpinning emotion of fado.