Sara Correia and the Tempestade taking fado to the world
With an album written entirely by women and a packed international diary, the fado singer has become one of the faces of Portuguese fado heard far beyond Portugal in 2026.
While cinema box offices fill up with Hollywood openings, there is a very Portuguese sound gaining ground well beyond the borders. Sara Correia, one of the most talked-about voices of the new fado, is living the year that firmly puts her on the international map, and the key is called Tempestade.
The album, released in early 2026, has a detail that says a lot about the moment: its eleven songs are written entirely by women. Among the names behind the lyrics and themes are Carolina Deslandes, Márcia, Mafalda Arnauth and Beatriz Pessoa, plus poems by Florbela Espanca and Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen. The single Canto, written by Carolina Deslandes, takes on a hard subject, emotional violence, and turns it into an act of resistance.
The fado that fits the world
What makes this phase different is not just the record, it is the map. Sara Correia has been taking fado to international stages, from festivals to landmark venues like the Barbican in London, showing that the genre travels well without losing its soul. As she likes to put it, fado fits anywhere in the world.
For anyone following music made here, it is a good moment to notice how fado is renewing itself without betraying itself: the tradition is still there, in the Portuguese guitar and the raw emotion, but the stories and the writers are of now. If you are looking for a way in, Tempestade is an excellent starting point.
It is not a lone case in a summer of good Portuguese and international music. See also our round-up of July’s albums and the return of Loreen with the album Wildfire. Fado, remember, has been UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2011.
By Lucy Bennett
Image: Paulae / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
