Afro Brazilians and music lovers all over the world are mourning the passing of global sensation, Elza Suarez. The historic singer died peacefully in her home on Jan. 20.
Among her countless accolades, she was elected in 1999 by BBC Radio London as the Brazilian singer of the millennium and Rolling Stone Brazil magazine’s list of the hundred greatest voices of Brazilian music.
Born on June 23, 1930, in Rio de Janeiro, Elza Gomes da Conceição was a Brazilian singer-songwriter, who overcame a life full of struggle. The daughter of a washerwoman and a manual laborer, she was raised in a favela in Rio de Janeiro.
She was forced into an arranged marriage at the age of 12, gave birth to her first child at the age of 13, and became a widow at the age of 21. To make a living she worked many jobs including a maid and a worker in a soap factory She was the mother of eight children, four of whom died: three from malnutrition and hunger, and the fourth, who died at the age of nine in a car accident.
One child was put up for adoption and she also had a daughter who was kidnapped as an infant. She reunited with her as an adult.
Throughout this tumultuous early part of her life, she never gave up on her dream to be a singer. She grew up composing her own songs, and at the age of 23 entered a musical contest at a local radio station. Elza entered the contest for the prize money in order to take care of her first child, Carlinhos, who was sick.
She won the contest and became an instant star. When the host asked her: “Where did you come from?”, and she replied, “I came from the planet hunger!”
Her bombastic personality shocked the airwaves. She quickly became known as the “Queen of Radio.”
Throughout her career, Elza Soares released 34 albums filled with the sounds of samba, jazz, electronic, hip hop, and funk. She is considered the pioneer of samba-jazz (an index of “impurity” and hybridity, therefore marginality) from 1959 with “If Chance You Arrived” Her last album, “Planeta Fome,” was released in 2019. Over the past decade, Soares became known as the most versatile singer on Brazilian radio.
Tributes to Soares filled social media this week.
