Biography
In 1972 Orlando Corrêa received the title of Best Singer across the entire Emissoras Associadas network. He had already begun performing at nineteen, appearing in circuses and gafieiras until Ciro Monteiro discovered him in 1947. Monteiro arranged an introduction at Rio’s Rádio Mayrink Veiga, where Corrêa secured a twelve-month contract and was assigned to the Casé program. That same period took him through Northeastern Brazil on a tour shared with Elizete Cardoso and Ataulfo Alves e Seu Estado Maior do Samba. He later joined Rádio Guanabara and, toward the end of 1949, cut his debut album, which attracted no attention. By 1951 he had moved first to Rádio Clube do Brasil and shortly afterward to Rádio Tupi, where he remained a fixture for the next twenty-eight years without interruption. His second release, timed for Carnaval 1951, paired “Minha Mão À Palmatória” by Antônio de Almeida and Ruy de Almeida with “Tourada Sem Espada” by Afonso Teixeira and Jorge de Castro, yet it also failed to register. Success arrived only with the third album, driven by the hit “Meu Sonho É Você,” credited to Altamiro Carrilho and Átila Nunes. In Rio’s leading dancehouses—Eldorado, Samba Dancing, Farolito, Blue Star, Belas Artes, Brasil Dancing, and Avenida—Corrêa performed regularly, since those venues paid singers more than radio work. He simultaneously shuttled between the other stations that formed the national Emissoras Associadas chain, the same organization that owned Rádio Tupi. When owner Assis Chateaubriand introduced television, Corrêa became a television personality as well. In 1954 he joined Carioca e Sua Orquestra, Araci Costa, and Ernani Filho on a tour that reached Uruguay. Between 1965 and 1975 his program Audição Orlando Corrêa repeatedly topped prime-time ratings.