Portugal

Famous Portuguese People: Portuguese Artists, Scientists, Leaders, Musicians, Politicians and Athletes

Daring dreamers are great achievers! This category of Portuguese daring dreamers changed the past, shaped the modern world and build the future! No matter if we speak about scientists who changed the way people understood the universe, past and present dynamic leaders, famous writers or artists, they are simply remarkable individuals!

:: List of Famous People from Portugal ::

Dulce Pontes
There are times when the meaning of words seem to fade away, they seem so poor, so entirely does our language fail to express the reality. It is almost impossible to describe the unique, majestic, powerful voice of Dulce Pontes and her divine music that conquered millions of people all over the world. Dulce Pontes (born March 8, 1969) is one of the most respected Portuguese artists: a musician, songwriter and singer who writes and performs in many music styles, including pop, folk and classical music.

Dulce Pontes is one of the finest, most gifted and most sensitive singers, her voice is absolutely outrageous. Dulce is a living proof that music is a universal language, she is a very different jewel in the crown of music. Her style is unique and beyond any comparison.

Dulce Pontes has collaborated with many international music stars, like Cesária Évora, Caetano Veloso, Marisa Monte, Carlos Nuñez, the Chieftains, Kepa Junkera, Eleftheria Arvanitaki,George Dalaras, Andrea Bocelli etc. Her song “A Canção do Mar” appeared on the soundtrack of Hollywood film Primal Fear. Her album “Focus” is the fruit of a collaboration with Italian composer Ennio Morricone with whom she has also performed live in concert.

Baruch Spinoza
Spinoza was a notable philosopher of Portuguese Jewish origin and is considered Europe’s first modern philosopher. He is one of the great rationalists of 17th-century philosophy, laying the groundwork for the 18th century Enlightenment. Moreover, he is considered one of the fathers of modern Biblical criticism.
In his magnum opus, The Ethics, Spinoza develops his philosophy in a very different way from Descartes Meditations, because he opposed Descartes’ mind–body dualism. Spinoza is considered to be one of Western philosophy’s most important philosophers.

Nelly Furtado
Nelly Furtado is a Grammy Award-winning Canadian singer of Portuguese ancestry. She is a singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress, one of the most beautiful women in the world. “Promiscuous”, “Maneater”, “All Good Things (Come to an End)”, and “Say It Right” are some of her hit singles. Nelly Furtado is considered to be one of the best singer/songwriter of the mainstream music industry.

“Furtado is known for experimenting with different instruments, sounds, genres, vocal styles and languages. This diversity has been influenced by her wide-ranging musical taste and her interest in different cultures.”

José Saramago
Jose Saramago is a Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, playwright and journalist.. Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998, the first writer in Portuguese to do so: “Jose Saramago, who with parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality” Nobel Committee. José Saramago is considered today one of the most outstanding writers in the world. He has combined is his work myths, history of his own country, and surrealistic imagination.

Jose Saramago founded the National Front for the Defense of Culture (Lisbon, 1992) with Freitas-Magalhães among others. The possibility of the impossible, dreams and illusions, are the subject of my novels,” Saramago has said. “In one sense it could even be said that, letter-by-letter, word-by-word, page-by-page, book after book, I have been successively implanting in the man I was the characters I created. I believe that without them I wouldn’t be the person I am today; without them maybe my life wouldn’t have succeeded in becoming more than an inexact sketch, a promise that like so many others remained only a promise, the existence of someone who maybe might have been but in the end could not manage to be.” (from Nobel Lecture, 1998)

Luis Figo
Figo is a professional Portuguese football player. He was the 2000 European Footballer of the Year, the 2001 FIFA World Player of the Year, and was named amongst the FIFA 100. Figo is one of the few footballers to have played for both the Spanish rival clubs FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. In his homeland Luis Figo is considered by some second only to Eusebio as Portugal’s greatest player ever.

Egas Moniz
António Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz was born in Portugal, studied medicine in the University of Coimbra and neurology in Bordeaux and Paris. He was an ambitious and multitalented person: a neurologist, political figure, and man of letters. Moniz was the first Portuguese to receive a Nobel Prize, “for his discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy in certain psychoses.” He was also one of the earliest developers of the cerebral angiography, the technique of using x-rays to visualize arteries and veins that are transiently opacified with the injection of a high density agent.

Jose Manuel Barroso
Barroso is the 12th President of the European Commission. He served as Prime Minister of Portugal from 6 April 2002 to 17 July 2004. He assumed the position in the Commission 23 November 2004.

According to EurActive.com, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso is considered to be the most influential European leader by 8% of the French, 11% of the Germans, 6% of the Spanish and 11% of the Italians. 6% of the Americans see him as the most influential leader in Europe.

Paula Rego
Paula Rego started painting at the age of four and is now placed amongst the four best living painters in England. Paula was appointed the first associate artist of England’s National Gallery. According to NMWA, Rego uses her art to explore the precariousness of human emotions and the complexity of life’s experiences. Her work is acclaimed around the globe and is represented in leading contemporary art collections. Paula Rego uses her art as a “journey through the mind and through the complexity of life’s experiences.”

Manoel de Oliveira
Manoel de Oliveira is a notable Portuguese film director born in Cedofeita, Portom who is frequently cited as the oldest active film director in the world. Beginning with silent films, he has been directing up to the 21st century having earned a multitude of honors such as the Jury Prize in Cannes.

Vasco Da Gama
Vasco Da Gama was a Portuguese explorer who discovered an ocean route from Portugal to the East, one of the most successful in the European Age of Discovery and the commander of the first ships to sail directly from Europe to India. Vasco Da Gama is considered to be one of the major figures in the history of international trade in the Early Modern ages.

Ferdinand Magellan
(Portuguese: Fernão de Magalhães, Spanish: Fernando de Magallanes)

Magellan was a Portuguese maritime explorer who is credited with circumnavigating the earth. Like Columbus before him, Magellan believed he could get to the Spice Islands by sailing west. Magellan tried to find a westward route to the Spice Islands of Indonesia. He thereby became the first person to lead an expedition across the Pacific Ocean. This was also the first successful attempt to circumnavigate the Earth in history. His voyage provided clear proof that the Earth is round. Though Magellan didn’t complete the entire circumnavigation, as the expedition’s leader he is usually credited with being the first man to circle the globe.

Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo is a famous Portuguese footballer who plays as a winger for English Premier League club Manchester United and the Portuguese national team. He is considered one of the strongest players in the world. In 2008, Ronaldo won his first UEFA Champions League title, and was named the final’s man of the match. He was named the FIFPro World Player of the Year and the FIFA World Player of the Year, in addition to becoming Manchester United’s first Ballon d’Or winner in 40 years.