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Elza Soares last February: "The singer moved the world with her voice, her strength and her determination"
Photo: Ricardo Moraes / REUTERS
The Brazilian singer Elza Soares, celebrated in her home country as the "singer of the millennium", is dead. This was reported by Brazilian media, citing her management, on Thursday (local time).
Soares died of natural causes at her home in Rio de Janeiro at the age of 91, according to a post on the artist's Instagram account.
»The singer moved the world with her voice, her power and her determination.«
Mixing samba, jazz, electro, hip-hop and funk and releasing more than 30 albums, Soares is considered one of Brazil's greatest singers.
Her highest honor: At the 2020 Rio Carnival, the »Mocidade« samba school honored her with its own parade in the Sambadrome.
Born in a poor neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Elza Soares was married at the age of 12, became a mother for the first time at 13 and was a widow at 21.
Soares was asked which planet she came from on the radio in 1953 when she started making music.
»From the Hunger Planet« was her famous answer, which also gave her 34th and last album »Planeta Fome« from 2019 its name.
The woman with the rough singing style made her breakthrough in 1959, and in the 1960s she established herself as one of the country's leading samba interpreters.
For many years Soares bore the title "Queen of Samba", although she never limited herself to that.
Elza Soares sang into old age and became a feminist icon in the process.
Concerts such as the presentation of "Planeta Fome" in the "Circo Voador" in Rio 2019 were events, almost manifestos, in which she criticized social structures and racism, for example.
Privately, Soares made headlines with her relationship with star player Garrincha, who left his family for her after the 1962 World Cup in Chile.
Brazilian media recalled that Garrincha also died on January 20 in 1983.
cop/dpa
