Sérgio Godinho's cultural merit recognized in Lisbon

"Lisbon was an acquired love," said Sérgio Godinho today at the medal award ceremony in the Salão Nobre of the Paços do Concelho. "I can say that I really consider myself a Lisboner". This distinction of cultural merit, he acknowledged, "is particularly grateful to me, because I think that culture permeates everything we do".

Sérgio Godinho, "is one of the greatest of our culture, of all our culture", considered Carlos Moedas. "His example, what his life tells us, what made him never afraid to take risks. It was, from the beginning, a life marked by something very noble in the human being, the search for freedom," said the Mayor of Lisbon.

Before April 25, 1974, in a "black and white country, whose mentality was not to risk, not to innovate, not to make waves, Sérgio Godinho was never like that, he was someone who was not afraid to go in search of the world. In that search he found freedom (...) and he would end up coming back precisely to celebrate and be part of building that freedom in his country."

Sérgio de Barros Godinho was born on August 31, 1945, in Porto. He left Portugal at the age of 20, "refusing to fight in the colonial war. He left the country because he wanted more of the world. He returned as a singer, songwriter, performer, actor, soundtrack author, director and screenwriter," underlines the proposal to award the medal, approved in 2025 by the Lisbon City Council.

He has lived in Geneva, Paris, Amsterdam, Brazil and Vancouver. His first album, "Os Sobreviventes", was recorded in France in 1971, with French musicians and the collaboration of some Portuguese who were then in exile in Paris, such as Luís Cília and José Mário Branco. He also recorded the album "Pré-Histórias" in exile. These two albums, awarded prizes by the Casa da Imprensa, were successively banned and authorized by the censorship of the time.

He returned to Portugal after the revolution of April 25, 1974, and played a key role in Portuguese popular music and authored music, working with José Afonso, Fausto Bordalo Dias, among others. He was the author of some of the "most unanimously acclaimed songs in Portuguese music and of extraordinary beauty": "Com Um Brilhozinho Nos Olhos", "O Primeiro Dia", "É Terça-Feira", Liberdade" or "A noite passada", among others.

In 2012, CML awarded him the Municipal Gold Medal of Merit. To the city where he lives, where he shares his art with the public, he gave the song "Lisboa que amanhece".