Fado singer is her own woman

Mariza is proud to be called a fadista, a singer and interpreter of fado, the melancholy, mesmerizing melodies considered Portugal's national music. Yet nearly a half-decade after her debut, ''Fado em Mim" (''Fado in Me"), and her ascension as one of the world's most acclaimed fado singers, she still chafes at comparisons to the legendary Amalia Rodrigues, the late singer called the queen of Portuguese fado.

''It's a huge compliment. It's like someone saying you're the new Nina Simone or the new Ella Fitzgerald," says Mariza during a telephone conversation from Portugal. ''At the same time, they aren't being respectful to that person's memory. And you feel like you're not that person -- you're living in a different era and saying different things with a different perspective on life."

That perspective is prevalent on Mariza's third and latest album, ''Transparente." With this album, the singer, who performs Oct. 1 at the Berklee Performance Center, says, ''I'm not trying to prove anything.

''When I started recording my first album, I didn't have a clue what was going to happen to me. I did my first album in a very naive way," she says. ''With the second album [''Fado Curvo"], I was trying to break that thing where people called me 'the new Amalia.'

''With this album," Mariza adds, ''I'm very relaxed because I'm not trying to prove if I'm a good singer, if I'm the new Amalia, or if I'm a fado singer. I'm just doing what I love."

And fado was Mariza's first love growing up in Portugal.

''Maybe I didn't have a choice," she jokes. ''Fado surrounded me all the time. It's like a skin; you can't take it off and say, 'At this moment, I don't feel my skin anymore.' . . . I belong to fado, and fado belongs to me. It's the way I express my feelings and my way of being."

Still, in her late teens, Mariza began to feel restricted by fado, and her musical interests turned to jazz, blues, funk, and soul.

''I was trying to understand different music from different cultures," she says. ''But [the songs] were not really finding me, and I was not finding them. . . . I love singing other styles of music, and it doesn't connect me to my culture."

These styles continue to influence Mariza's approach to fado. Fans of the music tend to be very particular about how it's interpreted, but Mariza has achieved success by weaving in jazz and blues.

''I'm half-African," says Mariza, who last name is Nunes. ''My father is Portuguese, and because of his roots, I listened to fado. At the same time, I also had my mom, and she listened to completely different styles of music.

''I think that opened several doors in my mind," she says, ''and I think unconsciously that still appears in my music. I'm not fixed on the cliches that fado is only this or only that. I only want to treat music with a lot of respect."