José Mário Branco

biography José Mário Monteiro Guedes Branco, better known as José Mário Branco, was a Portuguese musician, singer, composer/arranger and music producer. He was born in Porto on May 25, 1942 and died in Lisbon on November 19, 2019. José Mário Branco is described as “one of the biggest names in Portuguese music” where he presents us with an extensive musical activity in the most varied areas, with a career spanning five decades. In 1963, at the age of 21, he went into exile in Paris to escape military service in the colonial war, which he was expressly against. He returned to Portugal in 1974, after the Carnation Revolution. Throughout his career, he has worked with several prominent artists in intervention music and other genres, namely José Afonso, Sérgio Godinho, Fausto, Janita Salomé, Amélia Muge, Gaiteiros de Lisboa and, in the context of fado, Carlos do Carmo, Camané and Katia Guerreiro.