[5] During the 1970s and early 1980s, Carvalho won many international performance awards in Bulgaria, Poland and Belgium and was a strong participant in other music festivals in Chile, Argentina and Spain.

[1] In 1985, Carvalho began professionally associating himself with Fado, deferring to Portugal's traditional music as globalization came to be seen as a threat to his homeland's cultural heritage; Desculpem qualquer coisinha was his first record following this shift, and (though controversial) remains his most commercially successful venture.

His first marriage to Teresa Maria Lobato de Faria Sacchetti produced one child, singer Mafalda Sachetti.

Carvalho takes from the wider world of ballads and adds elements of jazz, pop, or whatever else he sees fit into his songs, yet still maintains the result as fado.

[citation needed] Carvalho was awarded with medal of Ordem da Liberdade by Aníbal Cavaco Silva, President of Portugal, on 10 June 2009.