The life of Lula Pena resists any biography. Born (1974) and raised in Lisbon, she is a cosmopolitan Portuguese: a woman of the wide world who, with words and melodies, makes the chants of others her own. She is the author of two records: Phados in 1998 for the Belgian label Carbon 7, which sold out very quickly, and Troubadour in 2010, the two being separated by 12 years between them...an enigma that imbues her reputation all the more. In a voice that’s both smooth and hot, Lula lends an intensity of interpretation, with Portugal’s trademark melancholia not far beneath. Lula Pena takes traditional fado as her starting point, and then adds extra layers of depth through the use of instruments that are not normally associated with this traditional genre.