Pedro Abrunhosa’s magical night at Meo Arena, in Lisbon: how to prove that, 30 years later, “Viagens” was just the beginning

It’s midnight sharp and Meo Arena, the biggest concert venue in the country, which this week received important news regarding its future, is all lit up. On stage, Pedro Abrunhosa and the incredible sound machine that accompanies him, the Caviar Committee, prepare to leave the altar for the first time where, for the last two and a half hours, they had the party. Or, as the helmsman began by explaining, where they dedicated themselves to revisiting “Viagens”, an album that this year celebrates 30 trips around the sun and which has just been chosen by a jury brought together by BLITZ as the best Portuguese album of the last 40 years, but also to “celebrate the future”. The proposal was fulfilled with brio: after all, not only did the ten songs from one of the most remarkable debuts in national music return to the stage – which, in many cases, they never left – with the vitality of their youth, but Pedro Abrunhosa demonstrated that, despite not releasing new albums for half a dozen years (it may do so again in 2025), it continues to mark Portuguese music with songs from this century that Meo Arena – and, before it, Pavilhão Rosa Mota, in Porto , in five sold-out nights – sings with the same fervor, or even more, than the classics in “Viagens”.