Elis Regina: Read Her Life Story

We pay tribute to the woman who is cherished by many as Brazil’s greatest singer.

Elis Regina is her name. Read her life story. We didn’t write the book, but we have it, and it’s free for you to read in English.

by Scott Adams

Welcome, and for taking the time to learn more about Elis Regina, let me say ‘thanks’!

March 17th marks another birthday for Elis Regina. But those around her feared this singer’s meteoric career would hold to a much shorter calendar.

Elis Regina died at age 36 of a drug overdose on January 19th, 1982. It put a coda on a life filled with visceral moods and emotions. Her talent and personality left us with a lifetime of music to sustain us after she had gone.

Musically, singer Elis Regina carried her talent like an open book. It propelled great emotion into her music, almost as if every song was part of her own life story.

Today, Elis is still revered as Brazil’s greatest performer, but surprisingly little has been written about her life.

Who Was Elis Regina?

Sure, you’ll find thumbnail bios and music tribute sites. But they’ll fail to get past the basics of what made Elis Regina one of Brazil’s very best performers. And one of her generation’s pioneering women.

Away from music, Elis was a mother, a wife, and a change agent for Brazil’s music industry. She was a very public supporter of women’s rights.

In the mid-70s’ she underwrote the newspaper Nós Mulheres (We Women), published by the Women’s Association of Sao Paulo.

Legends aren’t painted from paragraph-long bios. Elis Regina’s life was a combination of personal turmoil and creative release. Some say it reflected a dark and repressive period of Brazil’s history.

“The stage is so closely linked to with my way of being, to my traumas, that I think that to separate myself from the stage would be like castrating a stud horse,” Elis once said.

Setting The Stage for Elis Regina’s Life Story

Brazil’s Dictatorship began in 1964. It deflated Bossa Nova’s optimistic, innocent style. It gave rise to the protest song as part of the popular movement against the suffocating presence of government control.

Elis Regina’s rise to popularity was contentious. But eventually, her powerful emotion on stage endeared her to the nation. Regina’s legend grew from the contradictions that defined her life.

She disliked Tropicália but counted Tropicália’s Rita Lee as a dear friend. She tolerated Antonio Carlos Jobim, calling him “that sacred cow of our music”.

The feeling was mutual. But ultimately, time heals wounds and they recorded together in Los Angeles. Together, they created Brazil’s most beloved single, ‘Águas de Março’ (The Waters of March). 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of this famous recording.

We might have been limited to these snippets of her life. But then, an unusual set of circumstances occurred.

Elis Regina: Saving Her Life Story

Many years ago – on a now-defunct Yahoo Newsgroup – I came across a web-based, English-language translation of Furacão Elis (Hurricane Elis). This is the wonderful but controversial biography penned by Regina Echeverria in 1985.

Previously, this biography was available only in its original Portuguese, and only in book-bound form. Then, a Canadian fan named Robert St. Louis undertook the exacting task of translating the entire text into English.

A few years later, I discovered that the newsgroup had been closed. The book was no longer available anywhere on the Internet.

So, I tracked Robert down and offered to give his English translation of the book a permanent home. Happily, he agreed.

Regina’s Life Story Was Banned in Brazil

As the first published biography of Elis Regina, the author came under fire from critics. Some in Regina’s family publicly condemned it. Echeverria’s observations of her life are frank but fair.

Ultimately, the strong reactions from family members led to the book being pulled from stores. The book was – until recently – subsequently ‘buried’ by the original publisher. There was a certain amount of fan backlash, too.

Now you can read the entire book in English (all twelve chapters) anytime. It’s an unmatched look at the life and music of Brazil’s greatest female performer. I hope that it brings you a greater appreciation of Elis Regina and her life story.

Read Elis Regina’s life story

Get started with Elis Regina’s life story here. You’ll find the link to her biography, too.

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