Queer Interventions in Amália Rodrigues and António Variações

Abstract

In this article I will offer an analysis of two songs: O Rapaz da Camisola Verde, written by Pedro Homem de Mello in 1954 and sung by Amália Rodrigues in 1965 and Canção do Engate written and performed by António Variações from 1984. O Rapaz da Camisola Verde, produced during Salazar’s dictatorship, subliminally presents the story of a humble young boy, who sells his body in a dark corner, hiding from the regime. Ten years after the end of the dictatorship, Canção do Engate presents explicitly a physical relationship between two gay men, which represents the formation of a Portuguese queer identity. Offering a comparative analysis on the historical, the political and the personal context of these two songs, I will draw attention to the ways in which, after the end of the Portuguese dictatorial regime, possibilities opened up to the appearance of queer identities in the Portuguese society. These were based both on a rupture with an oppressive past and on the recuperation of these same identities.