Maria Bethânia

Maria Bethânia Vianna Telles Veloso (born 18 June 1946 in Santo Amaro da Purificação, Bahia Brazil), better known as Maria Bethânia (Portuguese pronunciation: [maˈɾiɐ beˈtɐ̃niɐ]), is a singer and sister of Caetano Veloso. She started her career in Rio de Janeiro in 1964 with the show "Opinião" ("Opinion"). Due to its popularity, and the popularity of her 1965 single "Carcará", the singer became a star in Brazil, with performances all over the country. She has released over 30 albums to date.

In her childhood, Bethânia had aspirations to become an actress. However, her mother was a musician, so music was prevalent in the Veloso household. Though Bethânia was born in Santo Amaro da Purifição, her family moved to Salvador, Bahia when she was 13 years old. The move allowed her to experience the bohemian, intellectual circles of the city as well as to visit theaters. When she was 16, her brother Caetano Veloso invited her to sing in a film for which he was producing the soundtrack, but she refused. However, the film's director, Álvaro Guimarães, liked her voice and invited the young musician to perform in a 1963 performance of a Nélson Rodrigues musical. She began performing again with her brother, as well as Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and Tom Zé, at the opening of the Vila Velha Theater in the next year. During one of these performances, the bossa nova musician Nara Leão offered her an opportunity to take her place in a series of performances titled "Opinião". She released her first single, a protest song named "Carcará", in 1965, the same year as her brother released his first recording.

After releasing "Carcará" Bethânia returned from Rio de Janeiro, where she had gone to attend college, to Bahia. This was to only be a brief visit, as around that time she was performing at nightclubs and other venues throughout Brazil. This song also got her an offer from an RCA Records representative to record for the company. However Bethânia continually changed record labels throughout the 1970s. In 1973 Bethânia released Drama, Luz Da Noite, in which she performed traditional Brazilian songs, as well as incorporating literary elements. In 1977 Bethânia went on tour and released a gold-certified album, both with the name of Pássaro da Manhã. She released Álibi a year later which was also gold-certified with over a million copies sold. Around the end of the 1970s, Bethânia became more artistically conservative, moving away from the Tropicalismo music her frequent collaborators, including Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil, had been playing. During the 1980s and '90s Bethânia continued to record and perform, with 1993's As Canções Que Você Fez Para Mim becoming the year's most successful album in Brazil.

In 2005, Música Popular Brasileira supergroup of the same name. It was recorded June 24 of that year at Anhembi Stadium in São Paulo. Its members were Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia and Gal Costa, four of the biggest names in the history of the Music of Brazil. The band was the subject of a 1977 documentary directed by Jom Tob Azulay. In 1994, they performed a tribute concert to Mangueira school of samba.
French filmmaker Georges Gachot completed a documentary film "Musica é perfume" about her which was worldwide distributed. In 2008 she recorded an album with the Cuban singer Omara Portuondo which was followed by a Live DVD
Maria Bethania in 2011 received permission from the Ministry of Culture of Brazil to make a poetry blog budgeted for $ 1.3 million Reais.



Maria Bethânia Vianna Teles Veloso (Santo Amaro da Purificação, Bahia, Brasil, 18 de junio de 1946) es una cantante brasileña, hermana del compositor y cantante Caetano Veloso, conocida por el singular color de su potente voz de contralto y la intensidad de sus interpretaciones.

Una leyenda viva, Bethânia es una de las más consagradas intérpretes de la música popular brasileña. Sin embargo su obra, ubicada en la frontera entre la música, la literatura y el arte dramático, tiene relativamente poca repercusión fuera del mundo lusófono, estando compuesta principalmente de elementos y referencias muy propios de Brasil y más específicamente de su región natal, Bahia.
Entre sus temas más emblemáticos se encuentran "Explode Coração", "Olhos nos Olhos", "Anos Dourados", "Negue" y "Carcará", además de éxitos recientes como "Beira Mar". En sus conciertos, Bethânia suele recitar poemas en portugués entre canciones, tanto de grandes autores brasileños como portugueses. El sincretismo religioso afro-brasileño, el drama y la pasión y las aguas de Brasil son temáticas muy frecuentes en sus álbumes. Entre los compositores cuyos versos fueron consagrados en la voz de Bethânia con mayor éxito se encuentran Chico Buarque, Tom Jobim, Caetano Veloso, Vinícius de Moraes, Roberto Carlos y Adriana Calcanhotto.

Es la sexta descendiente de João Telles Veloso, funcionario público del Departamento de Correos y Telégrafos de Brasil, y de Claudionora Vianna, más conocida como Dona Canô. Quien le dio el nombre fue su hermano, el gran cantante Caetano Veloso, a partir de una exitosa canción de la época, un vals del compositor pernambucano Capiba, éxito en la voz de Nelson Gonçalves, y que tiene como primer verso "Maria Bethânia, tú eres para mí la señora del ingenio". El público y la prensa comúnmente se refieren a Bethânia como "a Abelha Rainha" (la Abeja Reina), apodo extraído del primer verso de su canción "Mel" (Miel), de 1979. Bethânia es reconocida por su fuerte presencia y su contagiosa espiritualidad, y comparada por muchos a un orisha.

De marcada personalidad y temperamiento fuerte, Bethânia dice lo que piensa y son famosas sus innumerables peleas con directivos de compañías fonográficas por cuestiones éticas y creativas.
Maria Bethânia es la cantante femenina que acumula el mayor número de discos vendidos en su país, después de la presentadora infantil Xuxa. Su álbum Álibi fue el primero de la historia discográfica brasileña en sobrepasar un millón de copias vendidas, en 1978.