Simone first rose to prominence among MPB’s foremost vocalists and has since completed more than thirty-one albums. Over time she moved away from the socially conscious repertoire written by João Bosco and Aldir Blanc, Geraldo Vandré, Chico Buarque, and Milton Nascimento, embracing instead broadly appealing romantic material that carried her to audiences abroad.
Born to an opera singer and a pianist, she relocated to São Paulo at sixteen while hoping to pursue professional basketball, a path that included membership on the national team. Her debut LP, Simone, appeared in 1973. Hermínio Bello de Carvalho arranged engagements in Brussels, Belgium, and Paris, France, yielding the concert documents Simone et Roberto Ribeiro Avec João de Aquino à Bruxelles and Expo-Som 73 - Ao Vivo - Márcia, Leny Andrade, Simone, e Ary Vilela. A North American tour through the United States and Canada followed, and another live set, Festabrasil - Simone e João de Aquino, captured performances with João de Aquino.
The 1975 album Quatro Paredes brought further attention through songs by João Bosco and Aldir Blanc. Early radio favorites included “Jura Secreta” (Sueli Costa/Abel Silva) and “Face a Face” (Sueli Costa/Cacaso). In 1976 she interpreted “O Que Será” (Chico Buarque), chosen as the theme for Cacá Diegues’s film Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos. Milton Nascimento and Fernando Brant composed “Cigarra” expressly for her on the 1978 album of the same name.
Her largest success arrived in 1979 with “Começar de Novo” (Ivan Lins/Vitor Martins), featured in the Globo series Malu Mulher and included on the LP Pedaços alongside “Tô Voltando” (Maurício Tapajós/Paulo César Pinheiro), a track emblematic of the closing years of military rule and the onset of political amnesty. In 1980 she became the first artist permitted to record the pacifist anthem “Pra Não Dizer Que Não Falei Das Flores” (Geraldo Vandré) after its long censorship. Simone filled Maracanãzinho stadium in 1981 and drew fifteen thousand spectators nightly to São Paulo’s Morumbi stadium the following year. That same year she signed with American CBS, recorded in the United States, and received critical acclaim. Subsequent hits from this period encompassed “Alma” (Sueli Costa/Abel Silva), “Tô Que Tô” (Kleiton/Kledir), “Um Desejo Só Não Basta” (Francisco Casaverde/Fausto Nilo), “Você é Real,” and “Iolanda” (Pablo Milanéz/Chico Buarque).
In 1996 she issued Café Com Leite, an album devoted to compositions by Martinho da Vila that featured the composer as duet partner on “Ex-Amor.” Simone has continued regular appearances in Brazil, Portugal, and the United States. Sony Music placed her in its Celebridades da MPB series in 1997, alongside Ângela Maria, Sílvio Caldas, and Cauby Peixoto, and issued a four-CD retrospective one year ahead of her twenty-fifth anniversary. The 2000 release Fica Comigo Esta Noite surveyed classic Brazilian romantic samba-canção.
