Duarte was born in
Lisbon, where she grew up in the social housing projects at
Chelas, during the
Estado Novo dictatorship. Her father left to fight in the
colonial war, and died when she was 3 years old, never having returned home. Her mother raised her as a single mother with great privations. Fado did not play a part in her young adult life. She worked in different jobs, including at a newspaper and at a radio station. At some point, she was an instructor on a professional training program at a
cerebral palsy centre. She sang on a pop music group called
Valdez e as Piranhas Douradas but didn't pursue singing professionally. She also collaborated with the
Comuna — Teatro de Pesquisa theatre troupe where she was responsible for organizing their
Fado Nights. {{Listen When Aldina Duarte was 24 years old, she entered a traditional Lisbon fado house in
Bairro Alto intending to interview
Beatriz da Conceição, which she was asked to do by
Jorge Silva Melo, who was working on a documentary. Conceição's singing deeply impressed her and was the reason for her sudden and overwhelming interest in fado. She later said: "I fell in love with everything I heard. I asked her for advice. She talked to me about all the important things in fado. I wanted to be a
fadista. I spent many days listening to fado records, many nights listening to many
fadistas, many months reading and memorising poems". She dedicated herself entirely to fado, listening to dozens of recordings, memorizing dozens of lyrics, working on research, talking to fadistas, and formming her own repertoire. Duarte married
fadista Camané, and worked by his side, selecting a great part of his repertoire and writing lyrics for him to sing. She also worked on the same kind of repertoire-building research for
fadista Joana Amendoeira. In addition to working with these
fadistas, she worked for record label
EMI-Valentim de Carvalho on research, organizing compilations dedicated to
Raul Ferrão and
Alfredo Marceneiro, among others. Aldina Duarte sang fado publicly for the first time at the cerebral palsy centre at which she worked; and, in 1992, she sang the fado
Rua do Capelão on the film
Xavier, directed by
Manuel Mozos. The performance was recorded in a street in the traditional neighbourhood of
Mouraria, and the local residents applauded so intensely she had to sing an encore. From 1995 to 1996 she sang at the fado house
Clube de Fado, at guitarist
Mário Pacheco's invitation. From 1997, she started singing at
Sr. Vinho, a fado house owned by
fadista Maria da Fé. She recorded her first album,
Apenas o amor, at the age of 37. She wrote the lyrics for most of the tracks herself. The album was well received by the critics, who celebrated both her singing and her poetry. In 2006 she released her second album,
Crua. In this album, all tracks were traditional fados with lyrics by
João Monge. Duarte was the subject of a documentary released in 2009,
Aldina Duarte: Princesa Prometida, directed by
Manuel Mozos. ==Personal life==