As a cello, a violin or a clarinet, the human voice is an instrument but very few are able to use it as the standard of the former. There are lots of aspects to take into consideration when we put someone on this list. As FF says about some of his references, we also believe that he’s a part of that list.
FF (Fernando Fernandes) has been around for almost twenty years now. He is known for his role in ‘Morangos Com Açúcar’, the most successful teenage show in Portugal but, almost a decade prior to that, he won a singing contest called ‘Bravo Bravíssimo’. His memory traces back his love for singing since his early stages of life but he only found it as a viable way of living years later. As for his references, he grew up listening to a lot of genres: his grandmother showed him traditional portuguese music (fado) while his dad listened to what we nowadays know as the greatest bands/singers of pop and rock music. He credits all these influences to the artist he is today. When it comes to vocal references he was drawn to Amália Rodrigues, Dulce Pontes, Kate Bush, Freddie Mercury, Frank Sinatra amongst many others.
The first two stroke him by how their creativity and vocal abilities could move any listener and, by that, they became the biggest references when he was a teenager. Later on, he started to understand how singers like Frank Sinatra and Zeca Afonso could also convey a message through more subtle vocal options (‘you don’t have to show everything in an obvious way’). It took him three records (all tied to ‘Morangos Com Açúcar’) to finally like listening to his own voice. He lists his record ‘Saffra’ as the first time he really created a body of work on which he sounded truthful to his musical universe. Ironically, he recalls finally getting his opportunity to write his own songs and make a record out of them when he stared in an impersonation’s show on TV. While he was a contestant (and a winner) he got to impersonate Freddie Mercury, Kate Bush, Nat King Cole, Paulo de Carvalho, Carmen Miranda, Eros Ramazotti and so many vocally respected singers. This particular record also made him transition to a place on which he know could collaborate with people he admires. Last year he had the opportunity to sing his first hit (once again, premiered in ‘Morangos Com Açúcar’) invited by another musical act from that show.
He didn’t perform that song for almost fifteen years because it was clearly behind everything that he know loves to perform. However that moment made him clearly see that there’s nothing wrong with maturing and picking things where we last left them. He performed a new arrangement and embraced all these details that time brings to one’s voice. There’s always new approaches that can make us reclaim certain things. For him, the biggest mistake one can make is to become oblivious that what they do is for the people who listen to them. You can – as anyone else – have your share of vanity towards your talent or your image but when you perform you need to let those things out of the stage and be a medium to serve music to an audience. When he starts to work on a piece of music he uses his experience as an actor (and an acting student) to start his approach; most of the times it starts from the perspective of a message and the power of the word rather than musically. He then uses music according to that foundation laid out by the purpose of that specific piece. To notice how that turns out, to see how technique meets emotion in a performance, there are no words that could actually substitute te experience to se FF perform live.
Photography: Tomás Monteiro
Styling: Mónica Lafayette
Hair: Eric Ribeiro
Make Up: Elodie Fiuza
Production: Snowberry
Talent: FF
Shoes: Dark Collection; Jacket: Ernest W. Baker; Shirt and skirt: Dino Alves
