Elis Regina

Elis Regina Carvalho da Costa (March 17, 1945 – January 19, 1982) was among the most popular female singers in Brazil in the 1960s and '70s.

Biography

Elis Regina was born in Porto Alegre, where she began her career as singer at age 11 on a children's radio show, Rádio Farroupilha. In 1959, she was contracted by Rádio Gaúcha and in the next year she travelled to Rio de Janeiro where she recorded her first LP, Viva a Brotolândia.

Related Topics:
Porto Alegre - 1959 - Rio de Janeiro

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She won her first festival song contest in 1965 singing "Arrastão" by Edu Lobo and Vinícius de Moraes. Her second LP with Jair Rodrigues, Dois na Bossa, set a national sales record.

Related Topics:
1965 - Edu Lobo - Vinícius de Moraes - Jair Rodrigues

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In the late '60s and early '70s, Regina helped to popularize the work of the tropicalia movement, recording songs by such musicians as Gilberto Gil. Her 1974 collaboration with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Elis & Tom, is often cited as one of the greatest bossa nova albums of all time. She also recorded songs by Milton Nascimento, João Bosco, Chico Buarque, Jorge Ben and Caetano Veloso. She possessed an exciting voice and superb intonation, and excelled at up-tempo numbers. Her nickname was "furação" ("the hurricane"), and also "pimentinha" ("little pepper").

Related Topics:
Tropicalia - Gilberto Gil - Antonio Carlos Jobim - Bossa nova - Milton Nascimento - João Bosco - Chico Buarque - Jorge Ben - Caetano Veloso

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She sometimes criticized the Brazilian dictatorship which had persecuted and exiled many musicians of her generation. In a 1969 interview, she opined that Brazil was being run by "gorillas". Her popularity kept her out of jail, but she was eventually compelled by the authorities to sing the Brazilian national anthem in a stadium show, drawing the ire of many Brazilian Leftists.

Related Topics:
Dictatorship - Musician - National anthem

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Elis Regina finally succumbed to a cocaine addiction in 1982, at 36 years old, having recorded dozens of top-selling records in her career. She is interred in the Cemitério do Morumbi in Sao Paulo.

Related Topics:
Cemitério do Morumbi - Sao Paulo

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Family

Elis married twice and gave birth to three children. Her first marriage was to Ronaldo Bôscoli in 1967. She gave birth to a son, João Marcelo Bôscoli, in 1970.

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She later wed her long-time collaborator César Camargo Mariano, and had two more children with him: Pedro Camargo Mariano in 1975, and Maria Rita in 1977. The three children all later became musicians.

Related Topics:
César Camargo Mariano - Maria Rita

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