I must have looked quite confused as I stood in front of the shelf with all the fado CDs, because out of nowhere he appeared and with a mysterious expression he pointed to the CD of a singer: Mafalda Arnauth.

It was April 2001, and I was in Lisbon, Portugal, for a conference organized by the company I was working for at the time. On the flight, I was leafing through the Baedeker – which was still available in printed form back then – and stumbled across a musical genre that has fascinated me ever since. It was fado, a musical genre from Lisbon and Porto that seems quite melancholy and indeed is, and not without good reason means “fate”. In any case, I had decided to take a closer look at it.

Now I was standing in the now defunct Virgin Megastore in the heart of Lisbon, and was overwhelmed by the selection of fado music.Yes, there was Amélia Rodrigues, the grand dame of Portuguese fado, but there was much more. And what should I choose from the myriad of CDs in front of me?

That was the moment when the stranger appeared in my life for a few seconds and changed it by simply pointing his finger at this CD. That year, I was supposed to break up with my girlfriend of many years and move to California, but I didn’t know that at the time.

“esta voz que me atravessa” (“this voice that penetrates me”) was the name of the CD by a young singer who had only made her breakthrough in Portugal two years ago, and this was her second CD.

The stranger had pointed to this CD, without words, because I wouldn’t have understood Portuguese anyway. His insistence was convincing and I picked up the CD and got involved with this singer I didn’t know and the style of music I didn’t know.

It turned out to be a revelation. Even the first song, which gave the CD its name, was characterized by the singer’s dreamy voice. Accompanied only by a guitar, she sings of a broken love that stabs deep into the heart.

Especially the third song on the CD, “De Não Saber Ser Loucura” (“When you don’t know how to be crazy”) is still my absolute favorite. It is about the desire for death, but actually asks for life and to solve the riddle of it. Here too, the guitar accompaniment builds up the tension for Mafalda’s vocals. Her yearning voice pierces the heart and leaves shivers down the spine.

Over the years, I have acquired many CDs with other legendary fado singers, such as those of the aforementioned Amélia Rodrigues, or those of the sadly recently deceased Mísia or Cristina Banco. But Mafalda Arnauth and this specific album remain my favorite during melancholy hours. And I have a stranger in Lisbon to thank for that, who changed my life in the few seconds we crossed paths.