Biography

Gil do Carmo

Gil do Carmo was born in Lisbon in 1973.
His first musical memories are linked to his grandmother's shawl which he pulled, with a boy's hand, while listening to her sing.
His father had a habit of sitting him on the living room floor listening to Jaques Brel, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra and Zeca Afonso.

He has learn to hear and feel through the artistic environment in which he grew up.

At the age of 14, he began to go to bars and friends' houses to make and listen to music.

At the age of 15, he began his singing lessons with Lúcia Lemos, which marked his future desire to be a musician.
He started to write and compose since then.

He met Pedro Joia and took part of the founding formation of the guitarist's first Trio.

At age 19, he studies at two of the world's leading music schools: the “Musicians Institute” and the “Berkelee College of Music”, in the United States of America. He was a student of Jamie Lula and learned singing and composition.

Gil do Carmo's first album was released in 1997. “Mil Histórias” is a portrait of Lisbon, from a new approach, with respect for the past, in a look at the new times of the city.
From a sound that was intended to be mixed and unifying, Gil do Carmo's creations explore the roots of Portuguese tradition in constant contact with the Atlantic influences that arrive on the Tejo's tides.

“Nus teu Olhos”, from 1999, becomes a great success in Portugal and projects the artist in Portuguese-speaking countries.

Creator of one of the most emblematic spaces for live music in Lisbon, the “Speakeasy”, Gil do Carmo marks a new way of being in Portuguese music by giving stage to young musicians and authors for 17 years.

It has been almost 10 years without recording a disc of originals, but throughout that time, he composed themes for Mariza, Dona Maria and Carlos do Carmo, among others.

“Sisal”, from 2008, is the artist's musical turn. The single “Na Maré de Ti” is one of the biggest hits of that year in Portugal.

“A Uma Voz”, from 2016, was his fourth album which had the participation of João Frade, Vicky Marques, José Manuel Neto and António Serrano, among others, recorded with the musicians total spontaneity to create the right creative environment that the singer and song writer wanted for this record.

He performs in several countries, in a growing international career: from Spain to Scotland, passing through Mexico, Brazil, England, France.
And suddenly, the pandemic arrives.

The album “SÊ” embarks on a poetic journey that intertwines with “Lisboa de Amanhã” — from the neighbourhood to the manjerico — embracing percussion from different latitudes and, free from prejudice, opening the way to an electronic approach that is new to his music.

In his latest album, “Mediterrâneo” (2025), Gil do Carmo unveils a new aesthetic and ethical chapter. Recorded at Canoa Estúdios, produced by Gil do Carmo and Tiago Santos, with additional production by Nelson Canoa, the album marks both a geographical and symbolic shift: if the Atlantic has always been the artist’s emotional and musical territory — the Atlantic Lisbon, port city and gateway to the Tagus — the Mediterrâneo emerges as a sea of rediscovery, reconnecting with the ancestry and the millenary heritage of Southern poetics. In an interview with Rádio Renascença, Gil do Carmo describes this transition as a return “to the sound that lives within the stones and the wind,” to the ancient vibration of the shores that “unite more than they divide.” The first single, “No Dia em que o Sahara”,, was released on 21 June 2025 — the artist’s birthday and the summer solstice — as a symbolic first testimony of his new musical and poetic journey. The song, which evokes inner deserts and the metamorphoses of climate and soul, stands as a metaphor for a time of urgency and hope. The music video, directed by João Vasco and filmed in the waters of the Mediterranean, extends this voyage of reconciliation — between light and shadow, poetry and harmony, past and future.

“Mediterrâneo” is a transformation through return: a call to listening, to delicacy, and to the clarity of origins — an aesthetic affirmation of voice and whisper, of desert dust and ancestral warm winds.

With nearly 30 years of career, Gil do Carmo stands as a singular figure in Portuguese music, recognised for his authenticity and his ability to bridge styles, eras, and geographies. The musician and composer has followed a path of constant reinvention, giving voice to both the roots and the routes of contemporary cultural fusion. “Mediterrâneo” emerges as yet another essential chapter in that legacy, celebrating — through music — the shared memory that unites the shores of a greater South.