Sense of Place: Lisbon's Salvador Sobral sings with a sense of 'saudade'

The Portuguese word saudade has no equivalent in any other language. You can't directly translate it, but at its core, saudade is a kind of longing and melancholy that isn't simply sad.

Portuguese writer Manuel de Mello defined it as "a pleasure you suffer, an ailment you enjoy." There's a richness and beauty to that melancholy that you can feel and share. Even if your language doesn't have a word for it, you can find it in the music and performances of Salvador Sobral.

Sobral sings in many languages, and you'll hear him perform in several of them in this session recorded in front of an audience at Namouche Studios in Lisbon for our Sense of Place: Lisbon series. Sobral won the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, the first time Portugal had ever won, and he did it with the highest score ever from both the jury and the televote. If that wasn't already incredible, Sobral also did it all while awaiting a heart transplant. He shares that story, plus Sobral talks about his new album, Timbre.