As the beat pulsing behind the mists of time, lost love, the human condition and nostalgia for the dead, Fado still fascinates us. The word means fate and for the Portuguese, Fado is a song from out on the seas, swollen with memories and the nostalgia of mariners who were tossed from one side of the Atlantic to the other. This form of music, with its hints of ardent sentimentality, passionate love, murderous jealousy and wounds to the heart made a permanent name for itself in casas de fado. From these genuine temples of the genre came most of the great names of contemporary Fado, such as António Menano, Joaqim Pimentel, José Porfirio. Maria do Carmo, Alfredo Rodrigo Duarte, Edmundo de Bettencourt, Alfredo Duarte and Maria Silva. At the end of the war, a new, largely feminine, generation of Fado singers was born, of which the undisputed queen was Amalia Rodrigues. This compilation contains 24 tracks by Amalia Rodrigues on CD1 and 27 tracks by other luminaries of the genre on CD2.