Saudades is one of the most famous and unique words in the Portuguese language, often considered untranslatable with a single English word. It describes a deep emotional state of nostalgic longing for something or someone that is absent.
In the song, David Carreira sings, "Sinto saudades do teu perfume" (I feel longing for your perfume). This line beautifully captures the essence of missing someone so intensely that even their scent evokes a powerful sense of yearning, making it a truly captivating word for learners.
This song is all about that head-over-heels feeling when you meet someone and bam, you're completely hooked. David Carreira starts by trying to play it cool, telling the girl, "Na minha nada é garantido" [In my life nothing is guaranteed]. But he immediately follows it up by admitting that if she wants to stay, he's all for it. He's completely captivated by her, especially her kiss, which he says tastes like mint—"Tua boca tem sabor a menta" [Your mouth has the taste of mint].
The whole feeling of the song is this intense, almost overwhelming attraction. The chorus repeats how just one kiss from her makes his heart freeze: "Só com um beijo dela, dela / O coração congela, gela" [Just with a kiss from her, from her / The heart freezes, freezes]. As the song goes on, any attempt at being casual disappears. Djodje comes in planning their whole future together, wanting to take her to the island of Sal in Cape Verde and declaring, "És o amor da minha vida" [You are the love of my life]. It's a sweet and catchy track about falling hard and fast.
David Carreira is one of Portugal's biggest pop stars. Born in Dourdan, France, in 1991 and raised in a famously musical family as the son of the singer Tony Carreira, he broke through in 2011 with the album "N.1", which went straight to number one at home. Since then he has moved easily between radio pop, ballads and dance rhythms, and in 2019 he became the youngest Portuguese artist ever to sell out the Altice Arena in Lisbon.
On "Menta" he shares the microphone with Djodje, a Cape Verdean singer, songwriter and producer born in Praia in 1989 and now based in Lisbon. Djodje grew up surrounded by music, started out as a teenager in the group TC, and has become one of the leading voices of kizomba and Afropop across the Portuguese speaking world. His warm, laid back delivery, part of it sung in Cape Verdean Creole, is what gives this song its island heat.