Marina Lima

Marina Lima entered the music industry ahead of the commercial emergence of Brazilian rock during the 1980s, viewing its development from an advantageous vantage point while establishing herself as a hitmaking pop artist from 1984 forward. Her most consistent songwriting partner remains her brother, philosopher Antônio Cícero. Among her most enduring successes stand “Fullgás” (Marina/Antônio Cícero), “À Francesa” (Marina/Antônio Cícero), “Pra Começar” (Marina/Antônio Cícero), “Nada Por Mim” (Herbert Viana/Paula Toller), “Eu Te Amo Você” (Kiko Zambianchi), “Ainda É Cedo,” “Não Sei Dançar,” and “Uma Noite e Meia.” Her wide-ranging selections blend rock-inflected pop-dance, blues, bossa nova, the characteristic melancholy of samba-canção, and a delicate trace of jazz.

Between the ages of five and twelve she resided in the United States, where her father was employed, learning to read English prior to Portuguese. Drawn to both psychoanalysis and music, Marina Lima—known at the time simply as Marina, before appending her surname to her stage identity in the 1990s—began composing, committing to the profession once Gal Costa recorded her “Meu Doce Amor” in 1977. The following year she assembled a band that included Lobão on drums, a musician later central to the formation and growth of Brazilian rock in the 1980s, along with Ricardo Barreto on guitar, Guto Barros on guitar, Zé Luís on saxophone, and Junno Homrich on bass; these four musicians would later join the pioneering Brazilian rock group Blitz. Her debut solo album, Simples Como Fogo (1979), already contained original material in the pop/rock vein that would dominate the subsequent decade. Her breakthrough arrived in 1984 via the album Fullgás, which also featured the track “Me Chama” (Lobão) and a version of “Mesmo que Seja Eu” (Roberto Carlos/Erasmo Carlos) whose lyrics were reinterpreted as an acknowledgment of her bisexuality.

Three years afterward she performed the title song she had written for the film Rádio Pirata (Lael Rodrigues). By 2000 she had issued fifteen albums in Brazil, with additional releases aimed primarily at the American market during a stretch marked by anxiety-related vocal difficulties. Marina Lima ranks among the foremost divas of Brazilian rock.