An internationally acclaimed Brazilian pop artist, Margareth Menezes has earned multiple awards and widespread recognition for her worldwide album releases, which have drawn praise from Billboard and Rolling Stone. Her extensive touring has encompassed Europe, Brazil, and the United States, including a notable collaboration with David Byrne.
From childhood onward, Menezes absorbed popular music through her mother’s enthusiasm and the vibrant traditions of Bahia, prompting her to perform at every opportunity. During adolescence she took the stage with Bahia’s lively trios elétricos during Carnival and began composing her own material. At twenty-one she launched her nightclub career in Salvador, securing the Troféu Caymmi for Best Female Interpreter of Bahia in 1985; she later repeated that victory in the following decade while also claiming the Troféu Imprensa. With an eleven-piece ensemble she then crisscrossed upstate Bahia.
Four years after her 1985 triumph she issued her Polygram debut, the self-titled Margareth Menezes, which paid tribute to Bahian rhythms. Her follow-up, Elegibô, topped the American world-music charts for eleven weeks, earned a Billboard award despite selling only ten thousand copies in the United States, and was named by Rolling Stone among the five finest albums globally in that category.
David Byrne subsequently enlisted her for his Rei Momo tour, resulting in fifty concerts across Europe and the United States. This exposure paved the way for her own headline dates in the United States, Canada, France, Italy, and Belgium. In 1990 she released Um Canto Pra Subir, whose samba-funk and samba-reggae arrangements reflected a pronounced pop sensibility; the single “Me Abraça e Me Beija” became a major Brazilian success. The dance-focused Kindala followed in 1991 and moved ten thousand units in France. Two years later Luz Dourada appeared, selling two thousand copies within two weeks in Switzerland.
During 1995 Menezes performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival and completed a four-night run at Berlin’s Heimatkläne Festival, each concert drawing three thousand listeners; she also issued Gente de Festa, which featured guest appearances by Caetano Veloso and Maria Betânia. A Billboard poll that year ranked her among the eleven foreign artists most familiar to American audiences. She toured Italy in 1996 and, three years afterward, appeared at multiple European venues, among them Spain’s Festivales de Navarra.
