Biography
Lady Zu ranked among the leading figures in Brazilian soul and disco throughout the 1970s. Born Zuleide Santos da Silva, she began performing at age eight on the television program O Dois é Nosso, which aired on TV Cultura in São Paulo. While supporting herself through assorted occupations and persistently approaching record labels, she secured her first opportunity in 1977. Promoted at that time as “the Brazilian Donna Summer,” she cut the single pairing “A Noite Vai Chegar” (Paulinho Camargo) with “Eu Prefiro Dançar” (Totó Mugabi). Issued the following year, the release moved several thousand copies and established her first album, A Noite Vai Chegar (1978), whose title track brought lasting recognition in the dance halls of working-class suburbs. Crowned Queen of the Brazilian Discothèque, she added further successes with “Hora da União” (Totó Mugabi), another version of “Eu Prefiro Dançar” (Totó Mugabi), and “Só Você,” Cleide Dalto’s rendering of Paul Greedus’s “Bah,” before the disco wave subsided in Brazil toward the end of the decade. After that point she appeared only occasionally until returning to the studio in 1988 for the Sharp prize-nominated Alma Negra, recorded jointly with Carlinhos Trumpete, Tony Tornado, Luiz Vagner, and Tony Bizarro.
Albums
