Samuel Lopes

Samuel Lopes (Amadora, May 28, 1970)

Author, editor, producer, composer, lyricist, and career manager.

From an early age, music was part of his imagination; as a child, he remembers listening to the records his father played, Glenn Miller, Frank Pourcel, or Frank Sinatra, and also the Portuguese music his mother listened to, such as Amália Rodrigues or Fernando Farinha.

Influenced by his older brother, who is a musician, he began his musical career in the mid-80s as a bassist in a metal band he formed. Later, he joined other pop rock and Portuguese music projects, eventually switching from bass to guitar, as this was a more suitable instrument for composition.
At the end of the 90s, he took on a large part of the compositions for the Portuguese film Pesadelo cor-de-rosa by Fernando Fragata with Catarina Furtado and Diogo Infante, who debuted in recordings with the film's opening theme, which he composed.

Despite leaving the stage in the 2000s, his facets as a composer and lyricist have always been a constant that remain to this day. Author of SPA since the 80s, he has dozens of lyrics and songs published by various artists from pop to fado.

His start as a music professional dates back to 1988, when he began in promotion and distribution at Nébula, a small distributor owned by Master António Sérgio, with whom he had the opportunity to expand his horizons to so many other types of music. This experience would inspire the creation of Música Alternativa, a publishing and distribution company he founded in the early 90s. It was important in promoting and developing the careers of hundreds of artists; Portuguese artists such as Moonspell, Blasted Mechanism, Tara Perdida, and António Zambujo, and international artists such as Tom Waits, Solomon Burke, Divine Comedy, PJ Harvey, and Offspring. Taking a leading role in the independent music scene in Portugal, dictating many of the trends that occurred in those years, also through the hundreds of compilations released such as Brazilounge, The Sound of Fashion, Tango?, and Divas do Brasil, and distributed as Café Del Mar or Buddha Bar.

In 2003, she created Difference, a record production company focused on the creation and development of innovative musical projects with added value, as well as the internationalization of Portuguese music. It was at Difference that projects like Amália Revisited, Liana - fado.pt, Donna Maria, Divas do Fado Novo, Novo Fado, Ana Laíns, among others, emerged, as well as the 4CD books: Fado Sempre! Ontem, Hoje e Amanhã, Divas do Fado, Mediterrâneo, Angola - As 100 grandes músicas dos anos 60 e 70 (Angola - The 100 Greatest Songs of the 60s and 70s), most of which achieved considerable success.

During those years, world music, Lusophone music, and fado in particular, became areas for which he developed a special taste, considering himself an innovator, despite appreciating tradition.
In 2010, he created the music book publishing house SevenMuses MusicBooks, aiming to have a cultural entertainment utility in Portugal and the world, continuing to develop original concepts, expanding them beyond music and beyond Portuguese borders. This includes poetry and many other enriching experiences in human value. Examples include the book-2CD Fado Portugal or the poetic-musical anthology of Fernando Pessoa, Os Mensageiros, which will be published soon, the book-CD project Citânia - Segredos do mar, also soon, and many other projects he intends to undertake in the literary-musical field in the near future.

He considers the artwork to be the most important thing for any artist, and argues that having criteria, originality, and passion are fundamental premises for forging new paths in the future.