In the 1970s, Rodrigues concentrated on live concert performances. During the post-
25 April 1974 period, she was falsely accused of being a covert agent of the
PIDE; this unjust charge triggered a severe bout of depression on her part. While
Salazar had been Prime Minister, Rodrigues had been a financial supporter of the
Portuguese Communist Party. At the same time she had occasionally expressed some admiration for Salazar himself, reportedly writing love letters to Salazar when he was hospitalized in 1968. Despite the government's heavy promotion of Rodrigues as a national symbol of Portugal, in private, Salazar hated fado and Rodrigues (whom he referred to as "that creature"), considering its central concept of "saudade" (nostalgia or a painful yearning for the past) as anti-modern and "has a softening influence on the Portuguese character", one that "sapped all energy from the soul and led to inertia". From the 1970s Rodrigues enjoyed particularly marked success in Italy and Japan. She recorded an album of Italian traditional songs,
A Una Terra Che Amo (1973), and made versions of her own songs in Italian. She recorded live performances in an album called
Amália in Italia (1978). Her return to the recording studio with Portuguese material came in 1977 with
Cantigas numa Língua Antiga. Soon after that release, Rodrigues suffered significant health problems, which caused her to be away from the stage for a short period again, and forced her to concentrate on performing, especially in Portugal. Those problems were followed by two very personal albums:
Gostava de Ser Quem Era (1980) (literally ''I'd Like to Be Who I Was
) and Lágrima'' (1983), using poems that she wrote herself. In between she sang Frederico Valerio's songs again, in an album called
Fado (1982). The 1980s and 1990s brought her enthronement as a living legend. Her last all-new studio recording,
Lágrima, was released in 1983. It was followed by a series of previously lost or unreleased recordings and two greatest hits collections.
Illness , today House-Museum. Rodrigues returned to the Olympia in Paris in 1985 for a series of concerts. From 1985 to 1994, she enjoyed great international success. During these years she held concerts in France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Israel, and the US, in addition to Portugal. In 1990 the celebrations of her 50th career anniversary started with a major concert in Lisbon's Coliseu dos Recreios at the age of 69. She was decorated by the President of the Republic on stage. Her voice had changed: it was lower in pitch and had acquired a new intensity. In May 1990, she performed at the
World Music Awards in Monaco, where she received an award for World's Best-Selling Portuguese Artist. Despite a series of illnesses involving her voice, Rodrigues continued recording as late as 1990. She eventually retreated from public performance, although her career gained in stature with an official biography by historian and journalist Vítor Pavão dos Santos, and a five-hour TV series documenting her half-century-long career featuring rare archival footage (later distilled into the 90-minute film documentary,
The Art of Amália). Its director,
Bruno de Almeida, has also produced
Amália, Live in New York City, a concert film of her 1990 performance at
The Town Hall. Rodrigues launched a final album of originals in 1990,
Obsessão. In December 1994 she gave her last concert, aged 74, during the Lisbon European Capital of Culture concerts. She underwent a lung operation soon after, in 1995. Television specials, interviews and tributes were held. She released a new album with original recordings from the 1960s and 1970s,
Segredo (1997), and a book of her poems, including the ones she had sung:
Amália: Versos (1997). In 1998, Rodrigues was paid a national tribute at Lisbon's Universal Exhibition (
Expo '98), and in February 1999 was considered one of Portugal's 25 most important personalities of the
democratic period. Soon after she recorded what would become her last interview for television. The Cinématheque de Paris did her a tribute in April 1999, by showing some of her movies.
Death On 6 October 1999, Rodrigues died at age 79, in her Lisbon home. The Portuguese government, at the time led by Prime Minister
António Guterres, promptly declared three days of national mourning. Her house in Rua de São Bento is now a museum. She is interred at the
National Pantheon alongside other Portuguese notables. She was given a state funeral, attended by tens of thousands, and later transferred to the National Pantheon in 2001, the first woman ever to be laid among the greatest Portuguese figures. ==Civil awards and decorations==