Raised in Brazil, the lead singer for Ella & The Bossa Beat has become a rising voice
Get to know Ella Borges’ soulful side as an up and coming singer and songwriter.
Our Best of Brazilian Music Showcases at Connect Brazil have been around long enough that we’re beginning to see daughters of famous Brazilian musicians take their rightful place on Connect Brazil’s streaming music playlists: Luiza Possi, Preta Gil, Bebel Gilberto come to mind.
Consider newcomer Ella Borges of Ella and the Bossa Beat. The title track of her debut album My Remedy is a top choice for 2020’s Best of Brazilian Music Showcase.
Raised in Brazil, singer and songwriter Ella also plays piano and guitar. Her father is the highly-respected drummer and producer Magrus Borges, who is a Grammy nominee with Bebel Gilberto’s Agora album this year.
‘My Remedy’ is a soulful driftaway original which inspires from the first note.
Currently full-time at Stetson University, studying International Business & Music, Ella balances a demanding schedule, so we were very pleased to catch up with her recently. Get to know Ella Borges: here’s what she had to say.
What musical influences have shaped your soulful style?
That’s a hard question! And to be as sincere as possible, I’m not quite sure specifically which artists influenced me to have a soulful style.
But I know that since I love so many different genres and styles of music, that maybe the mixture of all of it made me find my own voice. I think that this is essential for any singer.
Even though they might adore many others singer’s styles of singing, they need to ask themselves and try many times to research their own gift to see what style of singing – given their abilities – fits them the best and identifies with them the most.
For me, singing soulfully feels like I am being my true self.
What tunes are on your personal playlist these days?
My playlist has always been very eclectic! But recently, I’ve been listening a lot to Peter Gabriel, Sade and Australia’s Rüfüs Du Sol. I used to watch on repeat Peter Gabriel’s live shows on DVD when I was little, and his music has stayed with me even now. Gabriel writes amazing lyrics and that’s what I love about him.
I also adore Sade. Her chic, sophisticated style, deep lyrics and grooves are so wonderful. She is my favorite female singer for sure!
Rüfüs Du Sol brings in that modern dance vibe, the beautiful pads and synthesizers sounds and a dance groove that makes you want to move.
How has college life been for you during COVID-19? What is a typical day in your life like?
College life during the pandemic has been challenging, but doable. I am a very fortunate student to say that nothing has impacted me too much given school and COVID.
Although it was hard not seeing people that much anymore, I tried to stay in contact with my close friends by checking in to see how they were doing. And becasue my classes were half in school and half online, I still had the chance to visit campus and get out of the house a little.
A typical day in my life when school begins is to go to my classes during the day until about 5 pm and then come back home to work with my father in the studio, practice piano, and do everything we need to do for Ella & The Bossa Beat.
Also, usually during the weekends we have gigs, so then that’s when time management comes into play to balance school, music in the studio and gigs.
Brazil’s MPB is in disarray, but artists like Kell Smith, Tiago Iorc, Roberta Sa, Gilsons and Anavitoria have embraced an acoustic sonority called FoFolk. How do you see your own musical style meshing with this pop trend?
I think that my style could mesh with this pop trend depending on what song we compose, the melody and lyrics I write, and also the way I decide to interpret the song.
Ella & The Bossa Beat has many different influences in it and each song tells their own story. So, if one day we feel like making something leaning more towards FoFolk, I think that it would just be a matter of how we do it.
You mentioned that you are back in the studio, too. What can we look forward to in 2021?
We wrote ‘Speak From The Heart’ during the pandemic, and the lyrics were personal thoughts that I thought were important to talk about: the balance between the heart and the mind.
People are always making decisions in life, but it seemed to be that sometimes the best decisions made were when they followed their heart, even if at the moment it seemed irrational.
The song at first had a completely different groove and some harmony changes to it, and we listened but knew it still wasn’t complete. So that’s when we made it more of a ballad, slower tempo and more interesting chord progressions, and that was how the song needed to be, all along.
The upcoming EP will consist of four other songs, some are upbeat such as “What Happened to Our Love” and others with a bossa nova vibe like “Why”.
They all are unique and different from our previous CD My Remedy. We believe that these songs will always represent to us that moment of inspiration and light of writing music and lyrics when the whole world was going through a dark time with the pandemic. That’s the power of art in people’s lives.
GET TO KNOW ELLA BORGES OF ELLA & THE BOSSA BEAT
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