Lisbon: Capital of cool or cultural commodification?

The latest EasyJet in-flight magazine has an article about Lisbon as “Capital of Cool”. It praises the “friendly neighbourhoods where fado fills the streets and independent shops and bars thrive.”

It is certainly true that there is plenty of fado music these days. A recent article by  Iñigo Sánchez-Fuarros , Daniel Malet Calvo , Daniel Paiva & Jordi Nofre in Tourism Geographies shows that in the central neighbourhood of Alfama, fado venues increased 9-fold between 2012 and 2024. This underlines the growing popularity of fado music among tourists, which probably has something to do with the listing of fado as UNESCO Intangible heritage in 2011. The UNESCO designation describes fado music as:

"usually performed by a solo singer, male or female, traditionally accompanied by a wire-strung acoustic guitar and the Portuguese guitarra – a pear-shaped cittern with twelve wire strings, unique to Portugal, which also has an extensive solo repertoire."

As Fado is uniquely Portuguese, it provides a useful shorthand for Portuguese culture to sell to tourists. This is a long-standing process, dating back to the Salazar dictatorship, which critics argued distilled Portuguese culture into “Fátima, fado, and football.”

Fado

In fact, one could argue that 50 years after the Carnation Revolution, these ‘3Fs’ are stronger than ever. The Portuguese football team, following a litany of glorious failures, finally won the European Championship in 2016, and are now ranked fifth in the world. Fátima houses the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Fátima, a major pilgrimage site. This still attracts massive crowds, with 6.5 million visitors in 2025, matching pre-pandemic numbers, while the Centenary celebrations in 2017 had 9.4 million visitors. Fado is now also growing strongly, with many more fado houses in Lisbon, for whom 75% of the audience are tourists.  The President of Egeac (the body responsible for the management of iconic cultural spaces in Lisbon)  said in 2022 "I don't know to what extent we could live without tourists."

Tourists are a major support for the 3fs, with foreign pilgrims flocking to Fátima, football fans buying tickets for Benfica games and stadium tours and also crowding into the growing number of fado venues.

Fátima

In the case of fado, Sánchez-Fuarros and colleagues warn of  “Sonic thematization in the

Alfama district, which “converts community sonic practices into consumable tourist attractions.” This includes fado music moving into public spaces to attract tourists, the music being played at increased volume and standardization of the experience with red-checkered tablecloths, vintage photographs, and azulejo tiles. In this way fado becomes an atmospheric backdrop for tourist consumption.

Football

This aesthetic is curated by the fado venues and by institutional actors such as “The City Council and Fado Museum organize guided singing tours that convert neighborhood streets into performance stages, while urban art interventions brand Alfama as ‘the fado quarter.’”  

It seems that the Portuguese are still working hard to promote the 3fs, of which fado stands out as a unique and constantly changing element of their culture.