Marisa Monte

Brazilian vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Marisa Monte enjoys widespread recognition as the foremost vocalist of her era. Her richly expressive alto, shaped by operatic training, fuses samba and MPB with jazz, pop, funk, soul, and additional styles. Following the 1991 release of her studio debut Mais came 1994’s Verde, Anil, Amarelo, Cor de Rosa e Carvão, which brought her international prominence. On both projects she built enduring creative alliances with writers and producers such as Arto Lindsay, Arnaldo Antunes, Nando Reis, and Carlinhos Brown. The 2000 album Memórias, Crônicas, e Declaracões de Amor earned her the initial entry in a total of four Latin Grammy wins. The 2002 Tribalistas collaboration alongside Antunes and Brown moved more than two million units. In 2006 Monte issued two albums at once: Universo Ao Meu Redor emerged from her intensive study of localized Carioca samba, whereas Infinito Particular presented contemporary originals. Recorded across Brazil and the United States, 2011’s O Que Você Quer Saber de Verdade found Monte co-producing with longtime associate Dadi while assembling an ensemble of premier session players. Tribalistas resurfaced in 2017 with another self-titled album; a Facebook broadcast of its launch reached six million simultaneous viewers in 52 countries. Monte delivered Portas on Sony in 2021, her first solo studio collection in ten years. Cut across four countries amid the pandemic, the sixteen-track set drew on songwriting and production input from numerous longstanding partners plus several newcomers and appeared on the night of her fifty-fourth birthday.

Born Marisa de Azevedo Monte on July 1, 1967, in Rio de Janeiro, she matured inside a supportive musical household. Her father, Carlos Monte, worked as an economist and cultural director at the Portela samba school, surrounding her with Rio’s longstanding samba heritage. At fourteen Monte sat for the entrance examination at the Escola Nacional de Música with the goal of becoming an opera singer. She left university studies at eighteen and relocated to Rome to pursue advanced operatic training. There she formed a friendship with journalist and producer Nelson Motta, whose sister knew Monte’s mother; Motta had long maintained ties to samba and bossa figures including Elis Regina and Joyce Moreno and had shaped Brazil’s MPB movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s in his dual roles as critic and producer. Within months Monte’s focus shifted toward contemporary Brazilian music, prompting her to abandon classical singing. Before departing Italy she performed in Venice, where she reconnected with Motta. Upon returning to Brazil he guided her earliest professional concerts; the first, produced by Lula Buarque de Hollanda and titled Veludo Azul after David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, opened at Rio’s Jazzmania festival. Those wide-ranging sets mixed Brazilian and international material from various eras and won immediate approval from audiences and reviewers alike. Almost instantly Monte became the latest sensation in Brazilian music, selling out theaters nationwide.

A television special and album, MM (aka Ao Vivo), captured those initial shows. Released by EMI in January 1989 and produced by Motta, the set reproduced the same eclectic repertoire that had fueled her breakthrough, encompassing “Comida” by Titãs (with Arnaldo Antunes and Nando Reis), Tim Maia’s “Chocolate,” Os Mutantes’ “Ando Meio Desligado,” Candeia’s “Preciso Me Encontrar,” the 1950s standard “O Xote das Meninas,” Al Dubin and Jimmy McHugh’s “South American Way” (linked to Carmen Miranda), George and Ira Gershwin’s “Bess, You Is My Woman Now,” Kurt Weill’s “Speak Low,” and Barrett Strong and Norman Whitfield’s “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” Powered by the single “Bem Que Se Quis,” MM (Ao Vivo) sold half a million copies promptly.

Mais, her 1991 studio debut for EMI’s revived World Pacific imprint (issued in the United States by Blue Note), was recorded in New York with producer Arto Lindsay and reflected Monte’s signature approach. She co-wrote much of the material, invited contributions from Antunes and Reis, and added covers such as Caetano Veloso’s “De Noite Na Cama” and Pixinguinha’s “Rosa.” With Lindsay, Antunes, and Reis involved alongside Ryuichi Sakamoto, Bernie Worrell, Naná Vasconcelos, and John Zorn, the album registered as thoroughly contemporary MPB. “Beija Eu,” co-written by Antunes and Monte, and “Ainda Lembro,” one of the Reis collaborations, both became major hits; the record approached one million sales in Brazil and supported a national tour, after which Monte performed in the United States and Europe, making her international debut at New York’s Knitting Factory to favorable notice.

Her second studio album, Verde, Anil, Amarelo, Cor de Rosa e Carvão, appeared in 1994. Monte returned to New York to work again with Lindsay, yet also recorded portions in Rio while taking a co-production role. The set mixed her own songs with pieces by Antunes and Reis, covers of Lou Reed’s “Pale Blue Eyes,” Paulinho da Viola’s “Dança da Solidão,” Jorge Ben’s “Balança Pema,” and the traditional samba “Esta Melodia.” A new alliance with Carlinhos Brown, then leading Timbalada, yielded the hits “Maria de Verdade” and “Segue o Seco.” Gilberto Gil, Laurie Anderson, and Celso Fonseca participated, and Brown performed on his contributions. Commercially successful like its predecessor, the album was repackaged for English-language markets as Green, Blue, Yellow, Rose and Charcoal (aka Rose and Charcoal) on Blue Note. Live recordings from the ensuing tour formed part of the double album Barulhinho Bom (1996), whose remaining tracks were studio recordings including three Brown compositions; the package reached the United States in 1997 as A Great Noise after controversy over its cover art, accompanied by a full-length video later issued on DVD.

Before her next studio album Monte contributed frequently to projects by her associates. She duetted with Antunes on several tracks from his 1999 compilation Focus: O Essencial de Arnaldo Antunes, produced Brown’s multi-platinum Omelete Man that same year, and secured her own vanity label, Phonomotor Records, from EMI for future releases including those by Argemiro Patrocínio and Jair do Cavaquinho.

Memórias, Crônicas, e Declaracões de Amor, repackaged for English-speaking territories as Memories, Chronicles and Declarations of Love, reunited many prior collaborators including Lindsay, Brown, and Antunes on a collection of originals and selected covers. Her strongest commercial performer to that point, it captured a Latin Grammy for Best Pop Album; the supporting tour encompassed more than 150 concerts, among them a three-night engagement at Rio’s ATL Hall in June 2001 later released on DVD.

In 2002 Monte, Antunes, and Brown formed Tribalistas and issued an eponymous album on Phonomotor. Written collectively over several years, the release became a pop-culture event that surpassed the sales of Memórias, Crônicas, e Declaracões de Amor, topping Brazilian charts and performing strongly in Portugal, Italy, and France. Singles “Já Sei Namorar” and “Velha Infância” reached number one; a making-of DVD followed in 2003. The project earned five Latin Grammy nominations, including Record of the Year for “Já Sei Namorar” and Album of the Year, ultimately winning Best Brazilian Contemporary Pop Album.

After more than a decade of steady activity Monte stepped back from public view for several years following the birth of her child. Her 2006 return brought two simultaneous albums. Universo ao Meu Redor represented a meticulously researched survey of Carioca samba drawn from both classic and contemporary composers, while its companion Infinito Particular proved more personal and forward-looking, featuring songs developed with longstanding partners now including Seu Jorge and Adriana Calcanhotto. Both sets maintained a restrained tone and showcased Monte on an extensive array of instruments: acoustic guitar, bass guitar, autoharp, ukulele, viola, xylophone, melodica, kalimba, metaphone, cajon, vocoder, baixo, percussion, and assorted sound effects. Although some longtime listeners found the albums understated, critics and newer audiences responded enthusiastically; media coverage and extensive touring expanded her following. Singles “O Bonde do Dom,” “Vilarejo,” and “Pra Ser Sincero” all reached Brazil’s Top Ten, the pair of albums garnered three Latin Grammy nominations, and they secured the award for Best Samba/Pagode Album.

Following an extensive world tour Monte paused to reflect on evolving artistic priorities. She aimed to produce a modest transitional work that would gently introduce listeners to her shifting aesthetic. Recording took place in Rio, São Paulo, Los Angeles, and New York with an expanding roster of collaborators that included Rodrigo Amarante, Marty Ehrlich, Gustavo Santaolalla, Money Mark, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Thomas Bartlett (a.k.a. Doveman), Anibal Kerpel, Bernie Worrell, Domenico Lancellotti, and Erik Friedlander. Seven months later she completed O Que Você Quer Saber de Verdade, widely viewed as one of her most ambitious recordings. Issued in late 2011, it achieved substantial chart success throughout Brazil, South America, Japan, and Europe, and its supporting tour sold out across continents; it would remain her final studio album for a decade. A live document, Verdade Uma Ilusao, appeared in 2014.

Monte’s Universal Music tenure concluded with the 2016 release Coleção, which gathered B-sides, film themes, collaborations, outtakes, and new tracks rather than hits. Its lead single, “Nu Com a Minha Musica” (written by Caetano Veloso and featuring Amarante and Devendra Banhart), reached Brazil’s pop Top Five.

Tribalistas reconvened in 2017 to mark fifteen years since their debut, composing and recording a second self-titled studio album. Unveiled via Facebook Live, the hour-long concert drew more than six million simultaneous viewers across 52 countries. Three singles—“Aliança,” “Fora da Memória,” and “Diáspora”—entered the Top Five, while a Bruno Martini remix of the earlier “Velha Infancia” gained traction on international dancefloors.

The following year Tribalistas embarked on their inaugural tour, performing 35 concerts in 29 cities before more than 250,000 spectators across Brazil, Europe, the United States, and South America. In 2019 the trio issued the live album and video Tribalistas Ao Vivo, co-produced by the group and recorded at São Paulo’s Allianz Parque.

After the tour Monte signed with Sony Music. Since 2016 she had worked with archivists, librarians, collectors, audio and video restorers, and computer technicians to assemble an extensive virtual archive stored in the cloud. In 2020 Sony released two retrospective digital live collections highlighting rarer material: Memórias (2001) - Ao Vivo, drawn from previously unreleased performances from the Memórias, Crônicas, e Declaracções de Amor tour, and Hotel Tapes (1996) Ao Vivo, partially sourced from unedited recordings originally represented on the 1996 Barulhinho Bom DVD, captured at the ruins of Rio’s Hotel das Paineiras.

On July 1, 2021—her fifty-fourth birthday—Monte released the sixteen-song Portas, her first solo studio album in ten years. Recorded under strict pandemic protocols between October 2020 and March 2021 via an intercontinental link connecting Rio de Janeiro, New York, Los Angeles, Lisbon, Madrid, and Barcelona, the project incorporated outdoor songwriting sessions, social distancing, temperature screenings, and a fully masked string section. Lindsay produced the title track and lead single “Calma” through Zoom calls between New York and Rio. Additional collaborators included Marcelo Camelo of Los Hermanos on “Espaçonave,” “Sal,” and “Você Não Liga,” as well as Chico Brown, Dadi, Antunes, Reis, Pretinho da Serrina, Jorge Drexler, Lucas and Lucio Silva, Seu Jorge, and his daughter Flor de Maria. Each track received its own promotional video.