Choices With Soul


Choose the soul, always. That is the purpose of this section: to showcase the choices of people, projects and stories that inspire and, above all, inspire us because they have a soul. A Portuguese soul. In an issue dedicated to feminine power, read about the five women we’ve chosen who are themselves an art form; who are projects in their own right. From literature to music, including the important world of social activism, our choices depend on you and your talent.

Words: Cláudia Pinto


Anabela Mota Ribeiro

Photo: Tomás Monteiro

A journalist, with a background in Philosophy, Anabela Mota Ribeiro was born in 1971 in Trás-os-Montes. She is an author and presenter of television programmes, most recently Os Filhos da Madrugada (2021 and 2022, RTP3) and Calendário do Advento (2022, RTP3).

She can ask questions like no one else. This was the starting point for several of her books on some of the most important figures in Portugal and abroad. She has published O Sonho de Um Curioso (2003), and a series of 14 interviews, Este Ser e não Ser. Cinco Conversas com Maria de Sousa (2016), Paula Rego por Paula Rego (2016), A Flor Amarela. Ímpeto e Melancolia em Machado de Assis (2017), Por Saramago (2018) and Os Filhos da Madrugada (2021 e 2022). As a freelance journalist, she collaborates with various newspapers and magazines, has worked in radio and has had her interviews published on a website under her own name. Last year she published her first novel, O Quarto do Bebé. A journey through important issues like illness, the body-illness relationship, management, fertility and sexuality.


Eduarda Abbondanza

Photo: Pedro Moura Simão

Design and Portuguese fashion are inextricably linked in Eduarda’s name. With a life dedicated to fashion, Eduarda Abbondanza is currently president of the ModaLisboa Association and an inescapable name for design and fashion in Portugal.

She completed the Fashion Design course at CITEM in Lisboa and worked as an intern for both Ana Salazar and Rafaella Curriel. Splitting her time between Lisbon and Milan, Abbondanza officially launched her career with Matos Ribeiro in 1989 with the presentation of the autumn-winter 89/90 collection.

A year later, ModaLisboa was born at their hands, an event designed to showcase the creativity of Portuguese fashion, consisting of two annual fashion shows. At the same time, a competition was organised to promote new Portuguese fashion designers.

The project evolved into the ModaLisboa Association, a vast and multidisciplinary platform created to support and promote the work of fashion designers. In 2021, Eduarda was honoured with the special Golden Globe for 25 Years of Fashion.


Francisca Gama

One of the new names in Portuguese literature is Francisca da Gama. With a background in Law, she studied Radio, Television and Writing for audiovisual media. She has worked in various fields, from a law firm to a communications agency and did an internship at a national radio station.

She currently divides her time between writing and teaching, creating digital content and tutoring Portuguese as a second language.

In 2022, she published A Profeta, and in 2024 Cicatriz, a work that follows a couple of lovers on a trip to Brazil and focuses on the issue of violence against women.


Maria João Pires

She is the top name in Portuguese piano-playing. Maria João Pires needs no introduction, and to see her perform is to witness a perfect symbiosis between instrument and musician. She was born in 1944 and gave her first piano concert at the age of four. It’s safe to say that her talent was innate. She began her studies in music and piano in Lisbon, and later studied in Germany with Rosl Schmid and Karl Engel. In addition to her concerts, she has made recordings for Erato for fifteen years and Deutsche Grammophon for twenty years.

​Since the 1970s, she has dedicated herself to reflecting the influence of art in life, the community and education, to try to discover new ways of establishing this form of thinking in society. She has sought new ways to encourage the exchange of ideas, while respecting the development of individuals and cultures. In 1999, she created the Belgais Centre for the Study of the Arts in Portugal. Maria João Pires regularly offers interdisciplinary workshops for professional musicians and music lovers. In 2012, she launched two complementary initiatives in Belgium; the Partitura Choirs, a project which creates and develops choirs for children from disadvantaged backgrounds such as the Hesperos Choir in Belgium, and the Partitura Workshops.


Tânia Graça

Communicating is in her blood and Tânia Graça seems to have found the right place to do it. To be precise, Tânia is a psychologist and a sexologist; she has the words and a voice to say them with.

She uses social media — where she has around 300,000 followers — as a way of raising awareness around sex education and promoting sexual and emotional health. She addresses issues relating to sexuality, interpersonal relationships, self-esteem and emotional well-being.

Tânia Graça’s work has focused on demystifying taboos and prejudices relating to sex and sexuality, using an accessible and informative approach not only on her social networks, but also on the podcast Voz de Cama, on radio station Antena 3, as well as in all the public appearances she makes as a speaker.

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