Afonso's song "Grândola, Vila Morena" was used as a radio-broadcast signal by the Portuguese Armed Forces during their military coup operation in the morning of 25 April 1974, which led to the Carnation Revolution and the transition to democracy in Portugal.

Subsequently, Afonso's music, along with "Grândola, Vila Morena," became emblematic of the revolution, anti-fascism, the Portuguese labor movement, and the political left.

His parents were José Nepomuceno Afonso dos Santos, a magistrate, and Maria das Dores Dantas Cerqueira, a primary school teacher.

[1] In 1930, his parents travelled to Angola, a Portuguese colony at the time, where his father had been placed as a judge in the city of Silva Porto (present-day Cuíto).

For health reasons, Afonso stayed in Aveiro, in a house near the Fonte das Cinco Bicas, with his aunt Gigé and his uncle Xico, a "republican and anticlerical" man.

It was during 1959 and 1960 that he started singing in his trademark musical style, coloured with political and social connotations, touring with many popular groups around the country and gradually becoming a favourite among the working class and the rural population.

[1] From 1961 to 1962 he followed the pro-democracy student strikes and demonstrations demanding the end of the authoritarian Estado Novo regime, which were brutally repressed by the police.

He played in Switzerland, Germany and Sweden, with a fado guitar group that included Adriano Correia de Oliveira, José Niza, Jorge Godinho, Durval Moreirinhas and the singer Esmeralda Amoedo.

[1] Back in Portugal, Afonso took up a secondary school teacher position in Setúbal, where he developed a severe health crisis which left him hospitalized for 20 days.

After receiving hospital discharge, he found out that he had been expelled from public school teaching because the regime censors disapproved of his leftist political ideals and considered his songs highly subversive.

[1] In 1968, after being dismissed from the government teaching job, Afonso became a private tutor and started singing more regularly with popular groups from the south bank of the Tagus river, a region which had a stronger influence of the Portuguese Communist Party.

Afonso had a special contract with Orfeu, for he was paid 15,000 escudos per month, a princely sum at the time, under the condition that he recorded an album per year.

[1] In 1969, with the replacement of hardliner António de Oliveira Salazar by the more moderate Marcelo Caetano as head of the Estado Novo regime, the nation got a slight taste of democracy, such as permission to rebuild a democratic Labour Union movement.

José Afonso joined the movement and supported it by all the means he could while also taking part in the second wave of student rebellion against the regime in the university town of Coimbra.

[1] In 1970, Afonso released the album Traz Outro Amigo Também ("Bring Another Friend as Well"), which was recorded in London at the Pye Studios.

Janine de Waleyne from the Blue Stars of France, a prominent vocalist in French chanson, guested on the title track.

This was an event sponsored by Casa da Imprensa in which several folk singer-songwriters and musicians with anti-Estado Novo inclinations participated.

[3] The state censorship still operated in the event, and Afonso was forbidden from performing some of his songs with more political messages, such as "Venham Mais Cinco" and "A Morte Saiu à Rua".

[2] Almost one month later, on 25 April 1974, the Portuguese Estado Novo regime was overthrown in a nearly bloodless military coup, known as the Carnation Revolution.

"Grândola, Vila Morena" was one of the two songs used as a radio-broadcast signal by the Portuguese Armed Forces Movement during their coup operation and is considered ever since the anthem of the revolution.

[4] In December 1974, Afonso released the album Coro dos Tribunais ("Courthouse Chorus"), which was recorded in London, again at the Pye Studios, with musical arrangements by Fausto Bordalo Dias.

He performed on 11 March 1975 (the day of a failed coup led by António de Spínola)[5] in the RALIS, a leftist military stronghold.

In Italy, the revolutionary organizations Lotta Continua, Il Manifesto and Avanguardia Operaia released the album República, recorded in Rome on 30 September and 1 October 1975.

[1] The album Enquanto Há Força ("While There is Strength"), released in 1978, another collaboration with Fausto, shows some of Afonso's concerns about colonialism and imperialism and is also a critique of the Catholic Church.

"Thank you Zeca, come back whenever you wish, this is your home", the mayor of Coimbra, Mendes Silva, told him; to which Afonso replied "I don't want to become an institution, but I feel very grateful for the homage".

His coffin was covered with a red flag with no symbols, as he had wished, and it was borne by, among others, his fellow musicians Sérgio Godinho, Júlio Pereira, José Mário Branco, Luís Cília and Francisco Fanhais.

Many Portuguese musicians, both veterans and younger artists, joined in the tribute festival, called "Filhos da Madrugada" ("Children of Dawn", the title of one of Afonso's most famous songs).

Performers at this event included Brigada Victor Jara, Censurados, Delfins, Diva, Entre Aspas, Essa Entente, Frei Fado D'El Rei, GNR, Madredeus, Mão Morta, Opus Ensemble, Peste & Sida, Resistência, Ritual Tejo, Sérgio Godinho, Sétima Legião, Sitiados, Tubarões, UHF, Vozes da Rádio, and Xutos & Pontapés.