The Best Live Music Experience You Can Have With Culture Trip

To come to Portugal and not experience some live music would be a touristic crime. Trendy jazz bars and epic Euro nightclubs aren’t hard to find in Porto and Lisbon, the country’s two major cities and the slices of bread that make up this eight-day Portuguese sandwich itinerary. We’ll embrace a more traditional form of music, though, on our first night in the capital, Lisbon. After arriving into the city via a scenic train ride and having an afternoon free to explore, we’ll reconvene for an evening of live fado music. This soulful form of folk music has been used to tell stories in Portugal for at least 200 hundred years. It’s a tradition specific to this country, and can still be seen performed in bars all over the major cities. It usually consists of up to four string instruments, but the music is characterised mostly by the tragedy, melancholy and mournful nature of the lyrics, performed soulfully by an expressive vocalist, either male or female. It’s a really special form of music to witness live, and a perfect introduction – drink in hand – to the magical city of Lisbon.