Elis Regina

Elis Regina Carvalho Costa (March 17, 1945 – January 19, 1982) is still among the most popular female singers in Brazil, decades after her death .

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.

She won her first festival song contest in 1965 singing "Arrastão" -"The Trawling Net"-by Edu Lobo and Vinícius de Moraes, which, when it was released as a single, made her the biggest selling Brazilian recording artist since Carmen Miranda. Her second LP with Jair Rodrigues, Dois na Bossa, set a national sales record.

It said by her followers that she never sang off-key, apart from a brief apparition in the Swiss festival of Montreaux.

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, Aldir Blanc, Chico Buarque, Jorge Ben, Baden Powell, and Caetano Veloso. She possessed an exciting voice and superb intonation, and excelled at up-tempo numbers and ballads under the banner of Brazilian Popular Music (Musica Popular Brasilera). Her nickname was "furacão" ("the hurricane"), and also "pimentinha" ("little pepper").

She sometimes criticized the Brazilian dictatorship which had persecuted and exiled many musicians of her generation. In a 1969 interview in Europe, 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. She was later forgiven because they understood as a mother and daughter she had to protect her family from the dictatorship at any cost (even though other Brazilian artists preferred resorting consciously to exile under such threats, never surrending before this "patriot request".

Elis Regina succumbed to an accidental drug alcohol interaction in 1982, at the age of 36, having recorded dozens of top-selling records in her career. At her memorial, 100,000 fans and many of Brazil's greatest singers filled a soccer stadium to sing her songs in tribute. She is buried in the Cemitério do Morumbi in São Paulo.

Her song "Roda" appeared on the soundtrack to Be Cool.

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.

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, whose careers sprung only occasionally. After many years of complete obscurity, Maria Rita became a national singing sensation after a lenghty marketing campaign, like her mother, winning 3 Latin Grammies for her debut eponymous CD. Joao Marcello Boscoli, owner of Trama recording company, produced the first Elis Regina DVD allowing many of her fans to see "Brazil's Ultimate Diva" performing for the first time in a 1973 Brazilian TV show featuring songs and an interview. Otherwise, his Soul and MPB incursions failed to boot. Pedro Camargo Mariano was only noticed when he sang with his father, the brilliant pianist and arranger Cesar Camaro Mariano, on a Latin Grammy-nominated CD called "Piano & Voz" (Piano and Voice). His records still fill the bins of outlet stores all over the country.

Discography

*"Viva A Brotolandia" (first album recording in 1961 at age 16)
*"Poema" (1962)
*"Ellis Regina" (1963) (listed with two l's)
Dois na Bossa (1965)
O Fino do Fino - Elis & Zimbo Trio (1965)
Samba, Eu Canto Assim! (1965)
Dois na Bossa nº2 (1966)
Elis (1966)
Dois na Bossa nº3 (1967)
Elis (1968)
Elis (1969)
Elis Regina in London (1969)
Elis Regina & Toots Thielemans (1969)
Em Pleno Verão (1970)
Ela (1971)
Elis (1972)
Elis (1973)
Elis (1974)
Elis & Tom (1974)
Falso Brilhante (1976)
Elis (1977)
Transversal do Tempo (1978) (live)
Essa Mulher (1979)
Elis Especial (1979)
Saudades do Brasil (1980)
Elis (1980)
Montreaux Jazz Festival (1982)

Posthumous releases

Trem Azul (1982) (live)
Vento de Maio (1983) (compilation)
Luz das Estrelas (1984)
Elis Regina no Fino da Bossa (1994) (live)
*"Dose Dupla-Elis Regina" (1994) (digital compilation of first 2 recordings from 1961 and 1962)
Elis ao Vivo (1995) (live)
20 Anos de Saudade (2002) (compilation)
Little Pepper: The Definitive Collection (2004) (compilation)
*"Elis Regina: MBP Especial 1973" - black and white DVD released in 2005 (TV show)
*"Elis Regina Carvalho Costa" - full color DVD released in 2006 (live show)

External links

*Biography of Elis Regina (in Portuguese)
*Biography and discography of Elis Regina (in English)
*French site on Elis Regina