The death has been announced in Portugal of the fado singer Amalia Rodrigues.

She was seventy-nine.

Fado -- which means fate in Portuguese -- is the characteristic folk-song of Portugal, combining haunting and mournful music with sentimental lyrics expressing longing and yearning.

Rodrigues was known in Portugal as the "Ambassador of Fado" for taking it out of Lisbon taverns and putting it on a world stage.