Elizeth Cardoso: Google Doodle celebrates Brazilian singer’s 101st birthday

Google Doodle celebrates the 101st birthday of Brazilian actor and singer Elizeth “The Divine” Cardoso (Elisete Cardoso), who is recognized as one of the greatest singers of Brazilian popular music (MPB), on July 16, 2021.

Who was Elizeth Cardoso?

Elizeth Moreira Cardoso was born on July 16, 1920, into a family of musicians in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Her 1958 album “Canção do Amor Demais” (“Too Much Love Song”) is generally viewed as the first true bossa nova album, a hybrid style of breezy jazz and traditional Brazilian music that caught the stylistic evolutions of the period.

Elizeth Cardoso appeared as a singer at only five years of age. Elizeth started working at an early age and somewhere in the range of 1930 and 1935 was a store clerk and a hairdresser among other things.

Elizeth Cardoso’s first significant break happened at her 16th birthday party when an introduction to famous Brazilian musician Jacob do Bandolim completely changed her life. Excited about the youthful singer, Jacob do Bandolim took her to Rádio Guanabara, where she opened, on August 18, 1936, at the Programa Suburbano, with such artists as Noel Rosa, Vicente Celestino, Aracy de Almeida, and Marília Batista. Supported as a member of the cast, she began to perform there regularly on Tuesdays.

The week after Elizeth Cardoso was hired by the station to show up on a weekly program. Following this, she kept on performing on different shows with various radio stations. During the 1960s she had her own radio show.

Because of her low pay, in 1939 Elizeth Cardoso started to perform at clubs, movie theaters, and other venues. She met with impressive achievement and her fame expanded altogether. In 1950, because of the help of Ataulfo ​​Alves, she recorded “Braços Vazios” (Acir Alves and Edgard G. Alves) and “Mensageiro da Saudade” (Ataulfo ​​Alves and José Batista), however, the album was unsuccessful.

Elizeth Cardoso’s next recording, likewise in 1950, met with popular approval. The album incorporated the Love song “Canção de Amor” (Chocolate and Elano de Paula), and the company “Complexo” (Wilson Batista). The extraordinary achievement led her love song, in 1951, to show up on the first TV program in Rio de Janeiro on TV Tupi and aided launch her film career. She showed up in Coração materno, by Gilda de Abreu, and Watson Macedo’s É Fogo na Roupa.

In 1958, Elizeth Cardoso was invited by Vinicius de Moraes to be the singer of an album of songs composed without help from anyone else and Tom Jobim. Canção do Amor Demais became the first album of bossa nova music, launching the new genre. The album was released on the Festa label. While Cardoso was not fundamentally considered a bossa nova singer, she is the singer on the original version of the bossa classic Manhã de Carnaval from the Orfeu Negro soundtrack.

In 1959, Elizeth Cardoso recorded for the film Orfeu do Carnaval (Marcel Camus), likewise a significant piece of the initial period of bossa nova (it derived from De Moraes’ play Orfeu da Conceição), the songs “Manhã de Carnaval” (Luís Bonfá/Antônio Maria) and “Samba de Orfeu.” The soundtrack, a top seller in a few countries including the U.S. also, France, unduly credits the actress Marpessa Dawn as the singer.

After performances in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Portugal, Elizeth Cardoso launched one of her top-selling albums, Meiga Elizete, in which she was joined by the groups of Moacir Silva and Walter Wanderley. Elizete Interpreta Vinícius, devoted to compositions by De Moraes, was another achievement. Produced by him and arranged by Moacir Santos, the album additionally was excitedly saluted by the critics.

Elizeth Cardoso proceeded to sing and act with extraordinary achievement until her death. Before the finish of her life, she had released above and beyond 40 albums in Brazil, Portugal, and different countries. During right around seven decades of artistic life, she interpreted numerous forms of music yet her base was consistently samba, which she performed with extraordinary personality, and which procured her nicknames, for example, A Noiva do Samba-Canção (the Bride of Samba), Lady do Samba, A Magnifica (the Magnificent One), and the one generally associated with her name, A Divina (the Divine One).

Elizeth Cardoso died of cancer on May 7, 1990, at the age of 69 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Cardoso became an international sensation in the next many years; her heartfelt twist on Brazilian music collected standing ovations (with one lasting 15 minutes!) and charmed audiences internationally on world tours well into the 1980s.

In 2007, Rolling Stone Brazil recorded Elizeth Cardoso’s “Canção do Amor Demais” among the country’s top 100 albums ever.

On July 16, 2021, Google featured Doodle on its homepage for celebrating Elizeth Cardoso’s 101st Birthday.