Carmen Costa

Carmen Costa

Carmelita Madriaga, known as Carmen Costa, (5 July 1920 — 25 April 2007) was a Brazilian singer and composer.Born in Trajano de Moraes, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Carmen Costa moved to the state capital at age 15, where she worked as a maid at the house of singer Francisco Alves. She started her musical career encouraged by Alves, inviting her to sing at parties and to participate in radio contests. Carmen won the amateur singing radio contest presented by Ary Barroso. She became a professional singer, presenting herself in a duo with composer Henricão. Her first hit was Está Chegando a Hora, a version of Mexican song Cielito Lindo, in the 1940s. In 1945, Costa married the American national Hans Van Koehler and moved with him to the United States. She spent a season in Los Angeles and, in 1962 sang at the Bossa Nova at Carnegie Hall concert, with Antonio Carlos Jobim, Stan Getz and João Gilberto, among others.In 1950 she came back to Brazil, where she met composer Mirabeau Pinheiro, with whom she lived for five years and had her only daughter, Silésia. They worked together on songs like Cachaça não é água (being accused of plagiarism) and Obsessão. The singer also participated in several films, such as "Pra Lá de Boa" (1949), "Carnaval em Marte" (1955), "Depois eu conto" (1956) and "Vou Te Contá" (1958). In 2003, the City Council of Rio de Janeiro had approved an initiative project of the Museum of the Republic and she was proclaimed Brazilian cultural heritage. For the occasion, she composed the song "Tombamento", which he sang for the Minister of Culture, Gilberto Gil .On June 2, 2004, in Rio de Janeiro, she participated in the re-inauguration of Rádio Nacional, where she met former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, together with the " Cantoras do Rádio " (Radio singers), a generation of artists revealed on Radio National. Emilinha Borba, Marlene, Ademilde Fonseca, Adelaide Chiozzo, and Carmélia Alves. She died at Lourenço Jorge Hospital, in Rio de Janeiro, at age 86, after a few days in hospital. She had renal insufficiency and cardiac arrest at 6:00 am on April 25, 2007.

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