Inezita Barroso

Active in Brazil’s cultural landscape from 1950 onward, Inezita Barroso remains a widely recognized figure. A staunch advocate for caipira music, she has released more than eighty albums containing numerous enduring classics. Since 1980 she has presented the national television program Viola, Minha Viola on TV Cultura in São Paulo, spotlighting composers and performers devoted to the rural folk traditions of the interior. She appeared in six films, making her screen debut in 1950 with the Vera Cruz production Ângela and earning the Saci prize in 1953 for her role in Alberto Cavalcânti’s Mulher de Verdade. In 1997 the Sharp prize named her Best Regional Female Singer. A researcher since 1940, she has also written several books on the subject. Barroso began singing and playing the violão at age seven and took up the piano at eleven. Despite her position as a young beauty within São Paulo’s conservative, traditional elite, she encountered significant obstacles advancing her career in a male-dominated field. She made her radio debut on Rádio Bandeirantes in 1950; three years later her recording of the humorous folk-derived moda de viola “Moda da Pinga,” also known as “Marvada Pinga,” collected by Laureano, became her first success. The record’s B-side introduced Paulo Vanzolini’s “Ronda,” an enduring classic that functions as an unofficial anthem for the city of São Paulo. Her first LP, titled Inezita Barroso, appeared in 1955. During those years visiting artists Jean Louis Barrault, Vittorio Gassman, Roberto Ingles, and Marian Anderson encountered her recordings and carried copies back to Europe. She interpreted works by composers spanning many traditions, among them Heitor Villa-Lobos, Guerra Peixe, Hekel Tavares, Noel Rosa, Capiba, Waldemar Henrique, Dorival Caymmi, Joraci Camargo, Cecília Meirelles, Lorenzo Fernandez, Manuel Bandeira, Mário de Andrade, and Lupicínio Rodrigues. What unified this broad repertoire was her dedication to the folk music of Brazil’s diverse regions. Her most prominent successes emerged in the late 1960s and included “Bonde Camarão” by Cornélio Pires and Mariano, “O Menino da Porteira” by Teddy Vieira and Luizinho, “Engenho Novo” by Hekel Tavares, and “Trem de Alagoas” by Waldemar Henrique and Ascenso Ferreira. Throughout the 1970s she was asked to create video specials for audiences in the United States, Japan, Israel, the former Soviet Union, and other Latin American nations. Between 1990 and 1999 she served as music director and host of the program Estrela da Manhã on Rádio Cultura AM in São Paulo. In 1998 she contributed to the album Feito na Roça by Brás da Viola and his Orquestra de Música Caipira. She continues to present her television program, introducing emerging caipira talents while honoring established figures in the genre.