Manuel Freire is a Portuguese influential left-wing singer and composer, although he also works as a computer technician. Freire was born in Vagos, Aveiro District on 25 April 1942.
Freire's first work was an EP, released in 1968, with the title "Livre", that included 4 songs. "Livre", "Dedicatória", "Pedro Soldado" and "Eles". The best-known song was "Livre", a hymn to the free will and thought as the album was released during the Fascist regime of Oliveira Salazar, against the official censorship. After that, Freire became a close friend of some of the most influential left-wing musicians like Zeca Afonso, Padre Fanhais or Adriano Correia de Oliveira.
Some years later, still during the dictatorial regime, Freire participated in a TV show, in the only Portuguese station operating at the time, RTP, the "Zip-Zip", singing a poem by António Gedeão called "Pedra Filosofal" that became his most well-known song.
Later, he released an album composed by 11 songs, which had lyrics written by Portuguese poets, like António Gedeão, José Gomes Ferreira, Fernando Assis Pacheco, Eduardo Olímpio, Sidónio Muralha and José Saramago.