Do we like Mariza?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean record and a long-running UNICEF role, held at seven because the search found little on her views and no deep reporting on her causes.
Mariza is the woman who made fado cool for people who thought it was their nan's music. She was born in Mozambique to a Portuguese father and a Mozambican mother, and the family moved to Portugal when she was a baby. She grew up in Mouraria, one of Lisbon's most traditional fado neighbourhoods, where her parents ran a restaurant.
She started singing as a kid before she could even read, and she has talked about her heritage in her own words: “Half of me is very, very Portuguese and the other half is very, very African.” That mix is part of why she has been seen as a fresh face of a very old genre. She also insists she is a “Cantadeira de Fado” rather than a “Fadista”, a nod to the old masters.
On the harm test, honestly, the cupboard is bare in a good way. Searches for anything she has said or done about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants, vaccines or the climate turned up nothing harmful, and no sign of her working with anyone who pushes that stuff. The flip side is that she isn't a loud political voice either, so we can't point to her campaigning for anyone's rights, and that's why this is a pass rather than a gold star.
On the good-person side, there are no lawsuits, accusations or tales of a tantrum-throwing diva in what we found. What does show up is that she became a UNICEF ambassador, and her profile lists the awards you'd expect, including a BBC Radio 3 World Music award in 2003. That's a thin but clean record rather than a glowing one.
Right now she's back in the news with Amor, which she describes as exploring love, nostalgia and identity while staying rooted in fado. She has said she likes the “balance now between innovation and tradition”, which has been her whole career. The tour reportedly takes her across about 35 countries, so if she comes near you, the reviews say it's worth the ticket.