Leila Pinheiro

Having first made her mark in bossa nova before turning toward Brazilian pop, Leila Pinheiro began formal music studies at age ten. Four years afterward she dropped music theory to study piano with Guilherme Coutinho. In 1978 she entered the medicine program at FEMP, only to leave two years later when she debuted professionally in the production Sinal de Partida at Teatro da Paz in Belém. The following year she relocated to Rio de Janeiro RJ and, working independently, cut her self-titled debut album, which featured guest appearances by Tom Jobim, João Donato, Ivan Lins, Francis Hime, and Toninho Horta. Two years after that she presented the record at Sala Funarte in Rio with composer-performer Sérgio Ricardo joining her onstage. In 1984 she appeared with Zimbo Trio in Bogotá and Barranquilla, Colombia. The next year she placed third and earned the Revelation Singer award at TV Globo’s Festival dos Festivais for her performance of “Verde,” written by Eduardo Gudin and J. C. Costa Netto.

Her first Polygram release, the 1986 album Olho Nu, included a guest spot by Pat Metheny; issued simultaneously in Japan, it led to an invitation to represent Brazil at the 17th Yamaha Festival, where she was named best interpreter. In 1987 she received the Villa-Lobos trophy from ABPD as feminine revelation of the year and took part in the OTI Festival in Portugal. She issued her third album, Alma, in 1988 and joined Wagner Tiso for a Projeto Pixinguinha tour across Brazil. The following year Roberto Menescal produced a bossa-nova collection for the Japanese market while she launched Benção Bossa Nova domestically; within twelve months the project had sold 200,000 copies, the highest total for any bossa-nova album in Brazil up to that point. She performed at the first Rio Show Festival’s Noite da Bossa Nova alongside Carlos Lyra, Verônica Sabino, Leny Andrade, Os Cariocas, and Johnny Alf. Her fifth album, Outras Caras, again produced by Menescal, appeared first in Japan. In 1993 she closed her Polygram period with Coisas do Brasil, which earned gold certification, and that same year she toured Belgium, the Netherlands, France, and Spain. Her EMI-Music debut, Isso é Bossa Nova, arrived in 1994 and also received gold status.

Two years later she recorded Catavento E Girassol, devoted to the songs of Guinga and Aldir Blanc. In 1997 she joined Baden Powell, Toquinho, and Carlos Lyra for the Vinícius de Moraes tribute Vivendo Vinícius at Rio’s Metropolitan. That September she traveled to the United States as special guest on Ivan Lins’s American tour, appearing in eleven cities and closing at New York’s Blue Note. In October she took part in the All Jobim concert at Carnegie Hall, sharing the stage with Ivan Lins, Dori Caymmi, Al Jarreau, Joe Lovano, Eugene Malov, and Sharon Isbin. The next year she released Na Ponta da Língua, focused chiefly on contemporary pop writers, taped a television special for Portugal’s RTP channel, performed for eight thousand people at Lincoln Center with Bebel Gilberto, Patricia Marx, Carol Saboya, and Quinteto D’Ellas, and issued the album itself. During 1999 she shared bills with Ivan Lins, MPB-4, Guinga, Paulo Bellinati, Lula Galvão, Orquestra Jazz Sinfônica, Paulo Sérgio Santos, Baden Powell, Tet Vocal, Nelson Faria, Luiz Brasil, Roberto Menescal, Flávio Venturini, Margareth Menezes, Banda Didá, and Madredeus. In Israel she sang at Jerusalem’s Binyael Ha’ooma convention center with the Jerusalem Symphonic Orchestra and contributed a duet with Walter Alfaiate to the CD Casa de Samba 3. In 2000 she issued her tenth album, Reencontro, spotlighting compositions by Gonzaguinha and Ivan Lins.