Maria João Fura
Portugal
Maria João Fura’s debut album includes 12 original songs in Portuguese that tell everyday life with irony.
While most songs seem to have a feminine voice, they can as well fit everyone’s skin.
A voice like a shivering body, that sparks fireworks, indifferent, it may be happy by chance, seduced by darkness.
This is an album made of strong tunes, woven from different states of mind evolving in an all-encompassing journey across Bossa-Nova, Soul Music, Electro Acoustic Pop, Cool Jazz and World Music.
This is a personal and mature project featuring the singer-songwriter with her guitar. In addition to her regular quintet line-up, it involves various musicians that have crossed each other’s paths throughout their career.
Maria João Fura ́s authenticity has been recognized by the music industry. In 2015 and 2017 two of the songs included in this album were selected for the Zeca Afonso e Ary dos Santos awards.
FURA's imagery also reaches the cinema with the song Fui Eu (I Was Me) on the soundtrack of Claire Bottalico's French short film La Loi Sans Moi.
Her concerts in Portugal and Brazil have been well received by the public and featured renowned guest-musicians such as Afonso Pais, Susana Travassos and Jorge Palma.
Playing music has been part of Maria João Fura’s life since she was a child. She studied cello at the Évora Vocational School while studying Agricultural Engineering. At the same time, she participated in several music projects and studied classical guitar at the Évora Regional Music Academy.
She teaches Music Education and holds a degree in Musicology and a Post-Graduation in Musical Pedagogy from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at the Lisbon Nova University.
Maria João Fura composed the songs for the theatre plays Dentro de mim Acontece...by Mário Fedele and Tanixumá, based on Fernão Mendes Pinto’s Peregrinação, produced for the official commemorations of the 500th anniversary of his birth. One of these tunes was used for the promotional spots on national TV and radio - RTP and Antena 2.
Former Gigs:
Instituto Juca de Cultura (São Paulo/BR), Ilha das Flores (São Paulo/BR), Festival Caldas Nice Jazz, Festival Silêncio, Festival Música a Metro, Festival Cantar Abril, Festival Intendente em Festa,
Festival Faz Música (2014, 2015 e 2016), Festival da Terra P ́la Terra, Teatro da Comuna, Teatro A Barraca, Teatro Chapitô, Pensão Amor, Duetos da Sé, Fábrica Braço de Prata, Renovar a Moraria.