Maria Rita | |
---|---|
Maria Rita performing at Virada Cultural in 2009.
|
|
Background information | |
Birth name | Maria Rita Camargo Mariano |
Born |
São Paulo, Brazil |
9 September 1977
Origin | São Paulo, Brazil |
Genres | MPB, jazz, samba |
Instruments | Voice |
Years active | 2001–present |
Labels |
Warner Latina Wea International Universal Music |
Website | Official website |
Maria Rita (Portuguese pronunciation: [maˈɾiɐ ˈʁitɐ]; 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 Pedro Mariano and music producer João Marcelo Bôscoli. Her namesake is family friend and famed Brazilian rock legend Rita Lee. She studied at New York University, and worked as a journalist at a magazine for adolescents.
Maria Rita began singing professionally at the age of 24, although she had wanted to sing since she was 14. Her first CD, Maria Rita, launched her career symbolically, with the first cut on her first album, A Festa (The Party), being written by Milton Nascimento, the legendary Brazilian singer-songwriter whose career was launched by Maria Rita's mother, Elis Regina, when she began to sing his songs to the national Brazilian audience. The CD went platinum and was a hit worldwide, making her an international star. She developed her own jazzy vocal style, with singers like Ella Fitzgerald as her model. For her 2013 album Redescobrir she was finally persuaded to perform and record songs her mother had sung.
She won the 2004 Latin Grammy Awards for Best New Artist in the General Field, Best Song in Portuguese (“A festa”) and her debut album Maria Rita won the Best MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira) Album award for that year. The world hit that “Segundo” turned out to be, granted her in 2006, two additional Grammys Latinos – Best MPB Album and Best Brazilian Song with “Caminho das Águas” authored by Rodrigo Maranhão – and over 50 shows abroad, with full public and reviews acceptance in the Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Irving Plaza (NY), San Francisco Jazz Festival, among others.