Owner of a distinctive, harsh voice, Elza da Conceição Soares was one of the most swinging samba singers. From the time she issued her debut single — “Se Acaso Você Chegasse” in 1959, and on which she introduced scat singing à la Louis Armstrong, to samba — she became a successful recording artist. Her second album, A Bossa Negra, from 1961, is considered a treasure of Brazilian music at home and abroad. With her voice and songs, Soares always celebrated the gritty aspects of peasant life. It was her birthright, as she was born in a favela. Her dispassionate, exaggerated style won over audiences in Brazil and across the world. In the lineage of Brazilian she is considered part of an eternal avant-garde, because of her desire to innovate in everything she sings.

Admired by artists such as Caetano Veloso, Chico Buarque, and Nick Cave, to name a few, she was awarded best female singer of the millennium by the BBC.

Soares passed away in January 2022, at the age of 91.