Elis Regina: The Greatest Voice of Brazil

For many Brazilians, no one ever sang their music better than Elis Regina — born Elis Regina Carvalho Costa, and known to the nation as "Pimentinha," the Little Pepper. A singer of bossa nova, MPB, and jazz, she paired a virtuosic instrument with a combustible stage presence, and her voice and fire defined an entire era of Brazilian song.^[1]

From Porto Alegre to national fame

Elis Regina was born in Porto Alegre on 17 March 1945 and began singing as a child on the children's radio show Clube de Guri.^[1] Her national breakthrough came in 1965, when she performed "Arrastão" — written by Edu Lobo and Vinícius de Moraes — at the first edition of the TV Excelsior song festival; she went on to host O Fino da Bossa, the influential music program on TV Record, and her duet album Dois na Bossa, with Jair Rodrigues, became the first Brazilian record to sell more than a million copies.^[1]

The defining interpreter of MPB

Elis's art was interpretation: contemporaries prized her vocal technique, her interpretive instincts, and the intensity of her stage performances in equal measure. She gave definitive voice to an entire generation of songwriters — Tom Jobim ("Águas de Março"), Ivan Lins ("Madalena"), Milton Nascimento ("Conversando no Bar"), Belchior ("Como Nossos Pais"), Edu Lobo and Gianfrancesco Guarnieri ("Upa Neguinho"), Zé Rodrix and Tavito ("Casa no Campo"), Chico Buarque and Francis Hime ("Atrás da Porta"), and Rita Lee and Roberto de Carvalho ("Alô, Alô Marciano").^[1] Her 1974 album Elis & Tom, recorded with Jobim, is regarded as a masterpiece, and her version of Águas de Março remains the song's iconic recording.^[1] In 1979 she recorded "O Bêbado e a Equilibrista" (Aldir Blanc and João Bosco), which became an anthem of the movement to end Brazil's military dictatorship.^[1]

Why it matters

Famous for her fiery temperament and her courage in confronting the regime, Elis Regina was voted the best female voice in Brazilian music by Rolling Stone Brazil.^[1] Her sudden death on 19 January 1982, at just thirty-six, shocked the nation; she remains, alongside singers like Elza Soares, one of the most revered women in the history of Brazilian music.^[2] Her musical line continues through her children, the singers Maria Rita and Pedro Mariano.