BLIND Portuguese vocalist Dona Rosa is heading to Salisbury Arts Centre.

She is one of her home country’s most famous singers. She performs fado, a form of Portuguese singing that is often associated with pubs, cafés and restaurants.

Dona Rosa spent her early years in grinding poverty, having been blinded by a severe case of meningitis at the age of four. She travelled to Lisbon once she was old enough to leave home and made her way begging and hustling in the street among the blind, destitute and homeless.

Discovering she could make more by singing than by begging, she started performing the folkloric fado repertoire she had grown up hearing.

In 1999, a Viennese producer, Andre Heller, was charged with finding a fado singer for a special production to be filmed in Marrakesh. He had seen Rosa performing in Lisbon years before, and went to great pains to contact her with the invitation to perform in the film Stimmen Gottes that would change the course of her musical career.

Since then she has made three records and has performed live on stages across the globe including Taipei, Moscow, Los Angeles, as well as the Womad festivals in England and Spain.

After her successful tour earlier this year, Dona Rosa is now back on the road, together with Raul Abeu and Ines Vaz, to perform a selection of very special concerts. She is performing in the city on Wednesday, November 16, 8pm. Doors open at 7.15pm.

For tickets call the box office on 01722 321744.