The 50 Songs that Announced the 25th of April: #42 ‘Bullfight’, Fernando Tordo (1973)

Until April 25, 2024, BLITZ publishes a list of 50 songs that paved the way for the freedom achieved 50 years ago. These are songs that, during the Estado Novo, foreshadowed the change that occurred on April 25, 1974, and gave shape to a cultural revolution that long preceded the political revolution that put an end to the dictatorship. The texts are written by Luís Freitas Branco, author of “The Revolution Before the Revolution” (Zigurate, 2024), to be published this month, a book that documents the way in which Portuguese popular music opened the doors to the cultural, social and politician that triggered April 25, 1974. Every day, this list will ‘receive’ a new song.

42. ‘Bullfight’, by Fernando Tordo (1973)

It’s one of the great unknowns of our popular music: how was it possible, in 1973, that ‘Bullfight’, the song that challenged millions of Portuguese to bullfight the regime, shoulder to shoulder, until he chased away the dictatorship, did he go through the censorship process? There is at least two pieces of evidence: the composers, Fernando Tordo and Ary dos Santos, were habitués of the Song Festival, with the poet being a double winner, that is, it would be difficult for the names to be vetoed; Those responsible for approving the songs were not at the behest of the General Directorate of Information, they were RTP employees, including Luís Andrade, who threatened dismissal if the censorship rejected ‘Tourada’. (He himself explains the episode in the documentary “Festival da Canção – 60 Anos”). In the end, no matter the reason, the sun or the shadow, a song managed to catch that wretched world by the horns, one year after the Carnation Revolution.