When Cristina Branco was growing up in the town of Almeirim in Portugal's Ribatejo region in the 1980s, she had little interest in fado, the music that dominated the country's culture for most of the 20th century.
Like most of her generation, the aspiring singer preferred pop, folk, jazz and blues. It wasn't just a matter of changing musical tastes; fado, like flamenco in Spain, was inextricably linked to fascism and the dictatorial regime that ruled the country for almost half a century until its downfall in 1974. The Portuguese people considered the period shameful and locked away its painful collective memories.
'It was the music of the regime. I didn't like it and nobody listened to it any more,' says Branco. 'I was listening to jazz and Brazilian music a lot. I loved rock'n'roll, even heavy metal.'
Then, on her 18th birthday, Branco's grandfather gave her the album Rara e Inedita by Amalia Rodrigues, a black-shawled, gut-wrenching vocalist whose reputation was tarnished because she was an associate of dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, who ruled the country between 1932 and 1968.
Branco, who was singing pop and blues numbers at local venues at the time, was won over by Rodrigues' vocal range and depth.
'After hearing her, I realised the capacity of telling stories through music,' she says. 'The way she was singing was so special and different.'