With a soft, modulated voice, sometimes pierced by lyrical outbursts without sinking into an emphatic expression, Duarte, beyond being a remarkable performer, stands out for his great writing and compositional qualities. Without upsetting the fundamentals of traditional fado too much, he infuses the genre with a freshness and delicacy that enchant.

"I'm married to psychology, but Fado is my mistress." This admission by Duarte, the new star of Fado, echoes this ambivalence of the Portuguese soul, always in search of that saudade in which those who let themselves be charmed by the sirens of the melancholy of absence sink. However, Duarte is not just another fadist, one of those who are said to be among the best of their generation.

Its uniqueness begins with a double activity. Others before him, such as Fernando Machado Soares, the last Fado de Coimbra cantor, a judge at the Almada court on the other side of the Tagus, have experienced this reality. But for Duarte, it is coupled with the status of singer-songwriter, which is rare among fado singers.

If you stop in Lisbon to listen to it, you will have to book at "Senhor Vinho", a traditional restaurant located on the slopes of the upscale Lapa district. But the young man, who looks like an English student, only performs on weekends. The rest of the week, he works on addiction phenomena for the Ministry of Education. « The cases I diagnose and treat have in common with my fados to be slices of life ». This can be seen in his texts but also in his elegant, refined compositions, imbued with the Lusitanian fatum that won him the 2007 Amália Rodrigues Foundation prize.

Duarte does not turn his back on tradition. He feeds his fados with earthy influences, those of his native Alentejo burned by the sun, which give character, vigour and depth to the music of this former student of the Evora Academy of Music, where he studied guitar and piano. This tradition, heir to José Afonso, also irrigates a thought that draws on politics, such as the sublime Rosas, where we talk about faded roses, which have been killed, as if mourning the ideals of the Carnation Revolution; and the social, like this a capella song about expatriation. Duarte does not fuse the currents, he juxtaposes them in a perfect balance between land and sea, between yesterday and tomorrow. Finally, as a performer, he seduces with his warm and bitten timbre, carried by a voice that knows how to give power to the show and vanish into the most intimate murmurs. How does he live from his two passions? « As in any adulterous relationship, you have to juggle your agenda and especially accept to sleep less. » Isn't the night the kingdom of fadists draped in their black cloaks?