Born on October 30th: MARO, Portuguese music is back
Born in Lisbon in 1994. The languorous voice of Maro blows the dust off the canons of the saudade and fado syles as well as indie folk.
It doesn't come as a surprise to learn that little Mariana Brito da Cruz Foriaz Secca (the name written on her passport) heard notes twirling around her crib from a very young age. She was born into a family of musicians and discovered the ivory of the piano at the age of four. As a teenager, she then learned the guitar and graduated with honors from the conservatory of the Portuguese capital in 2011. For a time tempted to study to be a vet, she could not resist the call of the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston for very long. It is hard to go back and who’s complaining?
A prolific singer-songwriter, she chose MARO as her stage name and set the bar very high to launch her career by releasing no less than five albums in 2018: "Maro" in three volumes from March to June, a collaboration with Manuel Rocha in October and the reassuring "It's OK" (in English) as the culmination of a fertile year. The least we can say is that MARO never does things by halves. During the Covid pandemic, she refused to sink into depression and organized, remotely, duets with Portuguese artists such as Rui Veloso and even with Eric Clapton without elaborating too much on her opposition to vaccination...
In 2022, she released the album "Can You See Me?" and also went to defend the colors of her country at Eurovision. Her captivating voice, sparse style and version of "Saudade, Saudade" (even mixed with a hint of electron) stand out in the ambient maelstrom. She nevertheless climbed into the Top 10 with her style intact. "Hortela", her latest collection of songs exclusively in Portuguese, was recorded with Catalan guitarists Dario Barroso and Paul Figueres with whom she then toured as an acoustic trio. Currently in Brazil, it will return to Europe at the end of the year and then return to Canada and the United States in 2025.
(AK/ML - Photo: Music Belgium Photos)
Photo: MARO on the stage of the Orangerie at the Botanique in Brussels (Belgium) on September 1, 2024 (© Music Belgium Photos)