Bernardo – Secrets of Six-Figure Women
19th September 2025
‘Secrets of Six-Figure Women’ is the debut album from London-based Portuguese vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Bernardo. Released via Liquid Warble, the album was written and produced by Bernardo and co-produced by Django Django’s Dave Maclean, with arrangements from Sean O’Hagan (The High Llamas). It weaves British and Portuguese influences into a sophisticated commentary on modern ambition and identity, exploring storytelling through soulful vocals and indie-electronic production.
Focus and opening track “Go Blue” is a hypnotic alternative-folk musing that encapsulates the main subject of the record, the significance and power of modern ambition. Bernardo goes on to explore the erasure of choice for women in the face of chasing success on “Laladiditi”, a track that rises and falls with fury and defeat, fuelled by a defiant stomping bassline. In light of this, “Turn Around, Keep Going” is an eerie meditation on reminding yourself to carry on, evoking a ethereal strength comparable to the likes of Nadine Shah. Elsewhere on the album, Bernardo’s Portuguese influences shine as she pays tribute to the legendary Brazilian-Portuguese musician Tom Zé on “Tom Zé, Mon Chéri” and mixes the Fado influences of her homeland with triphop on “Nada, Nada, Nada”.
Secrets of Six-Figure Women takes its name from a book Bernardo found outside a house: “I thought it was more about the multitudes we embody as women, but it was just about how to get a six-figure salary. The whole experience spooked me – the self-help nature of it, our monetary value, the reality of this capitalistic hellscape we now live under…” Bernardo thought of her dreams and ambitions, fuelled by a 9-5 job. She knew that would be the title for the album; representing everything she wanted to say across these ten songs, drifting between genre and language to truly add to the portrayal of how reality has slipped into a maddening version of what it once was.
As an alt-soul vocalist Bernardo, aka Sonia Bernardo, plays within the genres of indie and electronic. Born in East Ham, London to Portuguese parents, Bernardo was uprooted and moved to her mother’s village in central Portugal aged 8. She grew up surrounded by the sounds of traditional Portuguese music and her older brother’s alternative music collection, which was a source of great distress in the house. She started writing her own compositions at the age of 11, before moving back to London aged 17.
Settling in amongst the local music scene, Bernardo honed her craft as a producer and guitarist as word of her vocal stylings and songwriting skills began to spread. To date, she has worked with the likes of Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera, Django Django, Skinny Pelembe, Sean O’Hagan (High Llamas). Her regular Soho Radio show – The Dispatches Show– has featured interviews with her collaborators and beyond, and her live performances have taken her around the UK and Portugal, supporting Django Django and Franz Ferdinand.