Elis Regina Carvalho Costa (March 17, 1945 – January 19, 1982), known professionally as Elis Regina (), was a Brazilian singer of
Bossa nova,
MPB and
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
music. She is also the mother of the singers
Maria Rita
Maria Rita (; born 9 September 1977, São Paulo) is a Brazilian singer. Born Maria Rita Camargo Mariano, she is the daughter of famed pianist/arranger César Camargo Mariano and the late Brazilian singing legend Elis Regina and sister to P ...
and
Pedro Mariano.
She became nationally renowned in 1965 after singing "Arrastão" (composed by
Edu Lobo and
Vinícius de Moraes) in the first edition of
TV Excelsior
TV Excelsior was a Brazilian television network founded by Mário Wallace Simonsen on July 9, 1960, in São Paulo, São Paulo. Its last broadcast happened on September 30, 1970, when the Brazilian military dictatorship put an abrupt end to i ...
festival song contest and soon joined ''O Fino da Bossa'', a television program on
TV Record
Record (stylized in uppercase; ), formerly known as Rede Record and RecordTV, is a Brazilian free-to-air Television broadcasting, television network. It is currently the second largest commercial TV station in Brazil, and the 28th largest in t ...
. She was noted for her vocalization as well as for her interpretation and performances in shows. Her recordings include "Como Nossos Pais" (
Belchior), "Upa Neguinho" (E. Lobo and
Gianfrancesco Guarnieri), "Madalena" (
Ivan Lins), "Casa no Campo" (
Zé Rodrix and Tavito), "
Águas de março" (
Tom Jobim), "Atrás da Porta" (
Chico Buarque and
Francis Hime), "O Bêbado e a Equilibrista" (
Aldir Blanc and
João Bosco), "Conversando no Bar" (
Milton Nascimento).
Her death, at the age of 36, shocked Brazil.
Biography
Elis Regina was born in
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre (, ; , ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian Federative units of Brazil, state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of roughly 1.4 million inhabitants (2022) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, 11th-most p ...
, where she began her career as a singer at an early age on the children's radio show ''Clube de Guri''.
In her early teens she signed a record contract and a couple years later traveled to Rio de Janeiro, where she recorded her first album.
She won her first festival song contest in 1965 singing "Arrastão" ("Pull the Trawling Net")
by
Edu Lobo and
Vinícius de Moraes, which made her the biggest selling Brazilian recording artist since
Carmen Miranda
Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha (9 February 1909 – 5 August 1955), known professionally as Carmen Miranda (), was a Portuguese-born Brazilian singer, dancer, and actress. Nicknamed "The Brazilian Bombshell", she was known for her signature ...
. Her second album, ''Dois na Bossa'' with
Jair Rodrigues, set a national sales record and became the first Brazilian album to sell over one million copies. "Arrastão" increased her popularity because the festival was broadcast via TV and radio. The record represented the beginning of
música popular brasileira
(, ''Brazilian Popular Music'') or MPB is a trend in post-bossa nova urban popular music in Brazil that revisits typical Brazilian styles such as samba, samba-canção and Baião (music), baião and other Brazilian regional music, combining them ...
(Brazilian popular music) and contrasted with bossa nova. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she helped popularize
tropicalismo with
Gal Costa
Gal Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos (born Maria da Graça Costa Penna Burgos; 26 September 1945 – 9 November 2022), known professionally as Gal Costa (), was a Brazilian singer of Música popular brasileira, popular music. Twelve-times Bra ...
,
Gilberto Gil
Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira (; born 26 June 1942), is a Brazilian singer-songwriter and politician, known for both his musical innovation and political activism. From 2003 to 2008, he served as Brazil's Ministry of Culture (Brazil), Minister of ...
, and
Caetano Veloso
Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso (; born 7 August 1942) is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicália, which encompas ...
.
In 1970 she had her first son with first husband Ronaldo Bôscoli. Later on she had two more children with musician Cesar Camargo Mariano.
Regina was nicknamed "hurricane" and "little pepper".
She moved to Rio around the time Brazil was ruled by a military group.
Although her popularity protected her from reprisal when she criticized the regime while on tour in Europe, she was threatened with imprisonment unless she sang the Brazilian national anthem at an event honoring the anniversary of the coup.
In the 1970s she recorded the album ''Elis and Tom'' in Los Angeles with
Antonio Carlos Jobim.
In 1982 she was starting her third marriage when she died from a combination of alcohol and cocaine at the age of thirty-six.
Death
On January 19, 1982, Regina died at the age of 36, from
cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest (also known as sudden cardiac arrest CA is when the heart suddenly and unexpectedly stops beating. When the heart stops beating, blood cannot properly Circulatory system, circulate around the body and the blood flow to the ...
, after consuming
vermouth
Vermouth (, ) is an Italian aromatized wine, aromatized, fortified wine, flavored with various Botany, botanicals (roots, Bark (botany), barks, flowers, seeds, Herb, herbs, and Spice, spices) and sometimes Food coloring, colored. The modern ve ...
,
cocaine
Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...
and
tranquilizers. More than 15,000 fans attended a musical wake in the Teatro Bandeirantes in São Paulo. She was buried in
Cemitério do Morumbi.
Legacy
On August 18, 1997 Regina was posthumously awarded with the rank of the
Order of Prince Henry
The Order of Prince Henry () is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese ''infante'' Prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of the Age of Discovery. M ...
of Portugal.
In 2005, a memorial space was opened at the
Casa de Cultura Mario Quintana in Porto Alegre, Brazil to house the Elis Regina Collection.
The space exhibits audiovisuals, CDs, articles and other media materials and documents about the life and work of Regina.
Regina was portrayed by
Andréia Horta in the 2016 movie "Elis" directed by Hugo Prata.
Studio albums
Live albums
In life
Posthumous
Compilation albums
Posthumous
References
Further reading
* Arashiro, Osny. ''Elis Regina por ela mesma''. M. Claret, 1995.
* Echeverria, Regina (1985) ''Furacão Elis.'' Inclui cronologia e discografia por Maria Luiza Kfouri. Rio de Janeiro: Nórdica / Círculo do Livro. 363p. 2.ed. rev. ampl. 1994 (São Paulo: Ed. Globo); 3.ed. 2002 (São Paulo: Ed. Globo). 239p.
* Goés, Ludenbergue. ''Mulher brasileira em primeiro lugar: o exemplo e as lições de vida de 130 brasileiras consagradas no exterior''. Ediouro Publicações, 2007.
* Kiechaloski, Zeca (1984) ''Elis Regina.'' Col. Esses Gaúchos. Porto Alegre: Tchê! 101p.
* Pugialli, Ricardo. ''Almanaque da Jovem guarda: nos embalos de uma década cheia de brasa, mora?''. Ediouro Publicações, 2006.
* Sarsano, José Roberto. (2005) ''Boulevard des Capucines.'' Teatro Olympia, Paris 1968: Elis Regina e Bossa Jazz Trio em uma época de ouro da MPB. Ed. Árvore da Terra. 207p.
* Silva, Walter. ''Vou te contar: histórias de música popular brasileira''. Conex, 2002.
* ''Elis Regina Por Ela Mesma.'' (1995) Org. Osny Arashiro. São Paulo: Martin Claret. 2.ed. rev. 2004. 229p.
* ''O Melhor de Elis Regina.'' (2003) Melodias cifradas com as letras de 28 músicas do repertório de Elis Regina. Ed. Irmãos Vitale. 112p.
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Regina, Elis
1945 births
1982 deaths
20th-century Brazilian women singers
20th-century Brazilian singers
Brazilian bossa nova singers
Brazilian mezzo-sopranos
Brazilian people of Portuguese descent
Brazilian people of indigenous peoples descent
Drug-related deaths in Brazil
Música Popular Brasileira singers
Musicians from Porto Alegre
Women in Latin music
Portuguese-language singers of Brazil