Biography
Although his life ended prematurely, Minona Carneiro earned lasting recognition as one of Brazil’s foremost singer-songwriters during the 1920s and 1930s. Born Severino de Figueredo Carneiro in Recife, Brazil, in 1902, he devoted himself to embolada, a vivid regional idiom that flourished throughout Northeastern Brazil. At the time, embolada was widely viewed as music of the peasantry, and its frequently witty or biting verses spoke directly to the everyday struggles of the region’s working people. Carneiro exerted considerable influence on fellow practitioners of the style, among them his close friend Manezinho Araújo and the duo Jararaca & Ratinho. Persistent and severe health difficulties overshadowed his final years, and he succumbed to illness in 1936 at the age of thirty-four.