Festival Internacional de Fado 2026 and Sara Correia, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico City): The Festival Internacional de Fado will take place on November 26 and 28 under the theme “Fado and the Neighborhoods.” Portuguese singer Sara Correia said she is excited to return to Latin America and bring Portuguese musical tradition to Mexican stages.
The festival will include film screenings, lectures and exhibitions focused on the popular and street memory of fado, the Lusitanian musical genre. On Thursday, November 26, the program opens at 10 a.m.
with the exhibition “Fado and the Neighborhoods” at FES Acatlán of the UNAM, followed by a screening of the film “Do Bairro” by Diogo Varela Silva, running 75 minutes, at 11 a.m. in the Miguel de la Torre Carbó Auditorium.
A lecture titled “The Street and Fado,” by Ángelo Freire, is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. in the same venue.
Correia’s headline concert follows at 8 p.m. at the Teatro de la Ciudad.
On Saturday, November 28, the program moves to Cancún. The film “Do Bairro” will be screened at 5 p.m.
at the Foro Hirán Sánchez of the Teatro de la Ciudad, followed by the lecture “The Street and Fado” at 6:30 p.m. Correia will perform on the main stage at 8 p.m.
In an interview with Proceso, Correia, who was honored with the “Grande Noite do Fado de Lisboa” at age 13, has received Latin Grammy nominations and the Play Portuguese Music Award for Best Fado Album for “Do Coração” (2020). She said she considers the festival’s theme a natural extension of her own story, having been born and raised in the Chelas neighborhood of Lisbon.
“Fado is the music of a people who have suffered, who lived through times of melancholy, and of a very Portuguese soul, of intensity, but also of joy,” Correia said. She compared fado to flamenco and tango, arguing that such traditional genres share roots in the people and in their origins.
Correia will present her 2026 album “Tempestade,” which features 11 songs written by women addressing strength, vulnerability, love and the female experience. She said her performance will blend material from her four albums, from her debut self-titled album to “Tempestade,” spanning traditional fado and contemporary songs.
Asked about the contemporary music industry and the dominance of urban genres among young audiences, Correia stressed the lasting value of authentic music: “What is pure and what is true always finds a perfect place,” she said. “The purity of things must be maintained, and we will fight so that it does not stop existing, because it is our culture.
Good culture never dies.”
