It’s been 50 years since you left São Luís for Rio! Now, in 2025, it’s been 50 years since his trumpet voice immortalized Don’t Let Samba Die, can you believe it? It became an anthem, like so many other songs by wonderful authors you recorded! We, over here, are so proud to see you win the world!

When you appear on TV, then, everyone comes together to laugh and cry with you; hand stuck to your chest, between kisses of friendship and love! You can’t count the number of times we sing, doubling your voice, in chorus, loud and good for everyone to hear! It was almost every moment, Sunday sound, at the most important festivities.

When we suffered for love, it was in the affectionate arms of your rich voice that we cried, avenged, comforted, chested with hope and illusion. How many girls didn’t turn out to be women when they discovered your secrets! One thing is certain, your hits packed 1001 dates out there! You’re a romantic par excellence!

Silly, never! Wolf! Inspiration for all the women who daily nourished Brazil with the sweat of their work, with the sweetness of their dreams of love. More and more women, because that’s how you wanted it!

When we saw you black, on stage, for us, anything seemed possible! We know that the fight was not easy. You opened paths and so we can continue them with less fear, more desire, and head held high! Your dark voice, even with your eyes closed, tears, ignites, burns, sparks, burns our whole body!

Yes, it’s the contagious magic of all drums, be they Crioula, Bumba-meu-boi, or Samba school drums. That’s also why Maranhão has always been on your wrist! You represented him powerfully, telling those who have never set foot in this yard about the enchantments that inhabit its underground!

Your sound is a journey, there’s no country, no. Although you are the most Brazilian of the Brazilians, any language hears and appreciates you.

Now, we thank you, because we know your dedication! Every note sung, every spark of your voice was dedicated. Your star sound illuminated every ear in love with you. Accept this affection, which is our best! Although we will visit you here, it is for you that we have prepared everything!

Thank you, with all the love…

I met Marrom on stage at the Pujol Theater in 1974. Our friendship, as well as the admiration we feel for each other to this day, was born at that very moment. At the time I was starting my artistic career and she was already impressing Brazil with her deep and unmistakable voice. As soon as I met her, I realized that she has generosity as a brand, which was decisive so that my admiration for her only increased over time.

From the beginning of her career to the present day, Marrom’s biography is marked by success. There was nothing she could do that wasn’t successful. The awards were numerous and the recognition of his talent came in various forms. She has already received a Latin Grammy and is a multi-champion of the Brazilian Music Award in the Best Popular Singer category. She has already been honored by Estação Primeira de Mangueira, our favorite school, and as she herself said, “no honor could be greater for a popular artist”.

She has had her life staged in musicals and movies. She sang in more than 30 countries and is constantly applauded wherever she goes. But what I consider most important in all of this is that all this recognition comes as a result of her generosity, because when she sings, Marrom is sharing what is most valuable to her, which is her art, her talent, her voice. And that’s all delivery.

By moving musically through a profusion of rhythms and genres, Marrom shares with all of us the talent she has had since she was a child. When she talks about love, but also about all the suffering, sadness, work, struggle of women and people who identify with the lyrics she sings, she shows that she knows how to listen to and translate into melody what is going on in people’s souls. That’s a donation.

When Marrom recorded “Quero Sim”, a song written by me in partnership with Darcy da Mangueira, this was also an act of generosity, because it was with this recording that I was able to pay for the financing of the apartment where I lived with my mother at the time. She knew that and did what she could to help me. These are things that we cannot forget.

Commitment and feeling responsible for improving the world around us is also an act of generosity, and Marrom has demonstrated this many times. The greatest example was the creation of Tomorrow’s Mangueira. Whenever she has the opportunity, she contributes to the education of children and young people and to the women of Mangueira. This can never be forgotten, because representation should not just be a discourse, it must be anchored in reality and translated into actions, and Marrom knows how to do this like few others.

The young woman from Maranhão who went to Rio de Janeiro to fulfill her dream of being a singer and fought hard to be deservedly considered one of the most important voices in Brazilian music today, continues to represent each and every one of us, black, Northeastern women, who fight for dignity and to conquer the place they deserve.

Marrom remains a reference for all of us because it makes its history an example of struggle, but also of commitment to people and of greatness of character. She knows how to be a sister in what is most profound in that word, which is solidarity. When we need it most, she is always there for us.

Alcione Nazareth has always been and remains a voice from Maranhão, who sings about Brazil and overwhelms everyone with her repertoire, talent and generosity.

Leci Brandão
São Paulo, February 2025

WITH LOVE, ALCIONE

— After all, what is a samba artist?… And can women also be called that?

This type of question, oddly enough, is still going around in the minds of many people who don’t know the Samba beabá – an apprenticeship that requires the will to know, and nothing more. In the past, even people who wrote books were wrong in the definition, saying things like this: Samba is a black dance; and samba players are those who frequent the environment.

That’s what they said! Until an important Afro-descendant, a member of the Brazilian Academy of Letters, put the house in order and solved the problem, thus defining: Samba — Brazilian popular dance performed with music in a binary rhythm, with obligatorily syncopated accompaniment; samba artist – author or dancer of Samba. Antenor Nascentes, the illustrious academic, was called Antenor Nascentes. And you certainly knew that, even at that time, at the turn of the 20th century, there were women who composed, sang, and played Samba. And they wouldn’t let Samba die.

Another passage in the history of our popular music says that, in the 70s, the beginner Alcione Dias Nazareth, when she heard a compliment to her voice from the musician and producer Roberto Menescal, followed by an invitation to be launched as a samba player, gave her the affectionate answer: “I’m not from Samba, no, boy! I’m not a samba musician!”

The journalist and writer Leonardo Bruno tells this story, who happened to be the namesake of our partner’s conductor in My Grandfather’s Maracatu, immortalized by Marrom in 1983. And the little story is in the delicious book Cantos de Rainha (Editora Agir, 2021).

She was right, the daughter of Seu João Carlos. Because in Maranhão, where she had come to Rio from, she was already known as a crooner (orchestra singer) and trumpeter. And the answer he gave made perfect sense. At least, for the author of these lines, who, with all sincerity, has always had Alcione on the same high level as the late Elizeth Cardoso and Leny Andrade, in Brazil, and Sarah Vaughan, in the United States.

By refusing the label of samba singer, our great interpreter sought to escape a kind of trap that the old and persistent Brazilian racism still uses today: that of the “black place”. With this arapuca, little lies are created that, often repeated, end up taking on the color of truths, closing doors, interrupting careers, killing vocations; as happened with a brilliant Brazilian lyric singer in the 1920s.

An artist of the classical genre, very beautiful and undeniably black, at a time when many people still saw Brazil as a “Racial Democracy”, which it never was, the artist emerged as a big name in her specialty. Thus, in a competition organized by the National Institute of Music, now the Music School of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, he won a disputed gold medal, in the unanimous decision of a panel made up of seven renowned teachers. But, in addition, there was a coveted “Travel Award”, which would take her to Europe and which she did not win, for ‘not having a certain profile’, as was said at the time.

Always highly praised and compared to the black divas of her time, who were victorious, even born in known racist countries, our star did not receive the honors she deserved. And she ended her career as a popular but almost unknown singer.

We tell this story just as an example, because, as we know, our Queen Alcione, despite all the love she transmits and receives, “rules lightning and thunder”. And for this reason, it doesn’t give a shit, whatever the type of discrimination. Her strong temperament makes her a powerful woman, who even takes risks when it comes to doing good to those who deserve it, whether on stage and in the studios, or at Mangueira do Amanda, school above all else.

Thus, Samba has already taken Alcione and his privileged voice to more than 30 countries. And because of him, Dona Filipa’s daughter has already stayed in Italy for two years. He then performed a season of twenty-something shows in Moscow and other cities of the former Soviet Union in 1988. The invitation came from the USSR Ministry of Culture, in agreement with the Russian Embassy in Brazil. According to the embassy counselor responsible for the tour, in a press statement at the time, “Alcione is the soul of the Brazilian people”.

Pure truth! Its gallery of medals and awards includes, in addition to the Grammys, The Ivory Thinker, awarded by the Angolan government; the diploma and gold medal of the Paris Academic Society of Arts, Sciences and Letters; and The Voice of America, awarded by the United Nations (UN).

Her Majesty Alcione, our Queen, knows that in certain places Samba, the root and main trunk of Brazilian popular music, is still discriminated against as a song “in black, poor and old”. She also knows that the fabulous Bossa Nova repertoire, which enshrined good people like Tom Jobim, João Gilberto, Menescal, Carlos Lyra, Nara Leão, etc., also has a lot of Samba, such as Samba do Avião, Samba da Benção, Samba da Pergunga, Just Danço Samba, etc. But when it appeared, it was a different Samba style: sometimes, with only piano, double bass and drums; there was no cavaquinho, tambourine or drum; and, with this news, it really brought a different beat. But it didn’t stop being Samba!

**

All of this is said and written here with great respect for Diversity and for everyone’s taste. But it is also under the authority of someone who became a professional composer 52 years ago, by the hand of Alcione, still in his first steps. And that he wrote, for her, in those years, with several partners, and sometimes alone, lyrics and melodies for more than 25 songs in various genres and styles, but mainly Sambas, always very well recorded. All of this, integrating a collective of high quality musical creators.

Well it is… As the Russian ambassador quoted lines ago said, “Alcione is the soul of Brazil”. And we add: in today’s Brazil, Alcione is the image and voice of Samba, because she knows and can sing whatever she wants, however she wants. Which does it with a lot of class. And with love.

Nei Lopes
Rio de Janeiro, September 2024

“Marrom didn’t come here to play, no, and our general alert is for you to stay tuned to the most beautiful song in the world, ours”.

¹

Alcione, whose trajectory reflects the rich mix between popular tradition, technical study and the search for new influences, is one of the most emblematic singers in Brazilian music. Born and raised in São Luís, she grew up immersed in a musical environment fostered by her father, master João Carlos Nazareth, a musician in the Military Police band. In addition to encouraging contact with instruments, master João Carlos made a point of teaching his children all his musical mastery.

The first contacts with instrumental practice and scores gave Marrom the harmony with the musical technique that shaped the voice that would define her artistic identity in the future.

Another striking aspect of Alcione’s formation is its connection with popular black expressions, especially her experience at popular festivals in Maranhão, whether in the Bumba Meu Boi groups, Creole drum wheels, or the litanies of the Divine Festival, in which Alcione had fun playing the clarinet, even though she had never been the empress of the party, as she dreamed. The most diverse musical references were added to the Maranhão audition.

Alcione grew up listening to and being inspired by big names in Brazilian music, such as Núbia Lafayette, Ângela Maria, Dalva de Oliveira, Luiz Gonzaga, João do Vale and Jackson do Pandeiro. At the same time, she was enchanted by jazz and soul voices, such as Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan, and was carried away by the infectious rhythm of North American soul and gospel.

This mix of sounds and styles helped to build the unique artist that Alcione would become, able to move naturally between samba, choro, frevo, bolero and even jazz, always without losing the flavor of her origins.
Despite her musical training, Alcione never took vocal technique classes, something that, for her, was no obstacle.

“He learned to sing, singing”, with the firm voice of oxen singers, samba circles, and street parties. In her interpretations, the emotional charge is always palpable, filled with stories of love, pain and devotion that she heard throughout her life, making each song a true manifestation of her experience and of her people.

Alcione arrived in Rio de Janeiro busting the balloon’s mouth. I had already graduated and knew what I wanted. He already carried with him a rich musical background, forged in Maranhão, but open to the world. Her music, marked by the mix of styles and the constant presence of popular influences, made her one of the greatest interpreters of Brazilian music, able to thrill and surprise with every note.

Added to the musical quality was the awareness of her place as a black woman. From the beginning, she knew how to preserve her autonomy, always looking at wider horizons. If credit is on everyone’s lips today, it’s due to Alcione’s pioneering spirit.

When asked by her musical director about recording My Ebony, Alcione replied: “Who told you that I can’t sing Créu? You don’t know what I’m capable of”, reaffirming your autonomy and capacity to reinvent Brazilian music, in a scenario in which women, like us, could not even imagine having space to travel.

Today, with 50 years of a stellar career, Alcione is still active and present on the world stage, conquering both the young audience and the fans who have followed her for decades. Marrom is a symbol of resistance, strength and tradition, and its voice continues to reverberate the richness and plurality of the Brazilian people, and is deservedly crowned as one of the country’s great voices, with a trajectory that transcends prejudices, borders and generations, without ever losing its roots and the wisdom of its origin.

Deyla Rabelo
São Luís, January 2025.

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¹ Talk about Alcione in his TV show Alerta Geral. The program, which aired on Globo TV from 1979 to 1981, was created to highlight Brazilian popular music, paying homage to its big names, promoting discussion about the difficulties faced by musicians in the market and encouraging the public to consume music produced in Brazil

.

To look at Alcione’s more than 50-year career is to glimpse a trajectory that has never been in a straight line. It is to aim for a route full of curves, of route changes, of unexpected bifurcations. And the choices never happened because of the compass of the easiest path, but because of the certainty that that was the most appropriate direction to his truth, to his desires, to his time. In these five decades, the unexpected itinerary combines the samba singer who climbs the slopes of Morro de Mangueira, the bolero lover who sings in the chic corners of São Paulo, and the playwright who revolves to the sound of the rattles of Bumba-meu-boi. She is the artist who thrills us with her “Ne me quitte pas” and then amuses us with “I can’t go loose if you believe me”, without anyone being surprised by the sudden change of season. All of this is Alcione.

This “maranhoca” brought together Rio de Janeiro and São Luís, feijoada and rice from cuxá, first-time deaf and crioula drums, coconut water and guaraná Jesus. It produced the best cross between Nelson Cavaquinho’s dry leaves and Gonçalves Dias’ palmeiras-onde-canta-o-sabé. In his shows, he brings together Brazilians of all kinds, with madames and chutchucas embracing each other to sing with one voice: “I can no longer feed this love so crazy, that I suffocate!” — and at those times it doesn’t matter the size of each individual’s bank account. This versatility is the perfect portrait of a singer who was pregnant during Copacabana nights at the nightclubs that were the ‘crème de la crème’ of Rio’s hype in the 60s and 70s. For a crooner, it is necessary to put the audience first and deliver what they want to hear. Marrom delivers that and much more.

To travel through her repertoire is to observe how the close connection between the artist and the female audience was built. Alcione was one of the first interpreters to sing a sensual, unplatonic love: carnal love, which exudes desire and takes it to bed, without guilt.

She is a lady of herself, owner of her own body, aware of her desires and willing to carry them out. At the beginning of her career, she was already singing: “I am polite, I am stubborn/But I am a flower that cannot be smelled/It is better to be careful not to fall/I am a woman who faces contempt/If I don’t return it on the spot/Tomorrow you can wait”. In 2024, she continues to send the lyrics: “Lower the tone of your voice/That I can’t tolerate reading-reading/A lot of fierce manner/In my life I don’t want you”.

To follow the lyrics that come to life in Marrom’s voice is also to understand a little about the evolution of female emancipation in society. In the 80s, the lyrics generally portrayed an “old-fashioned” woman, more submissive, subject to the whims of men. The one who assumes “the role of a guilty thug” and who, when asked about when she will leave the man who dominates her, answers: “not dead!”. Little by little, the songs accompanied the new feminine view of relationships, of the woman who pays the change, is decisive and who does not accept rejection. That’s when the character appears who finds “a new love just to distract herself” and who expresses her desire without constraint to the target: “it’s you, my ebony, it’s all good”. Hunt and huntress.

An artist who took an Ita in the North to land in the South, little did she know that she was the one who would bring her thousand charms to the Marvelous City. He amazed the audience with his sounds and his voice, coloring the samba with every possible tone. And it became a national cultural heritage. The green and the yellow excuse me, but Brazil is brown.

LEONARDO BRUNO, journalist and writer
Rio de Janeiro, November 2024

There in Mangueira, the drumbeat is unique. It’s not a poetic license or a passionate way of declaring oneself to the First Station. Unlike all other samba schools, which set the drum rhythm with two deaf people, the first and the second, Verde e Rosa parades only with the first deaf. The largest and lowest of the rhythm instruments, the deaf one produces a rumbling that is known from afar, which beats unanswered, in the “rhythm of the step of my heart”, as the lyrics of O Deaf, interpreted by Marrom on the album A Voz do Samba, released in 1975, say very aptly.

At the invitation of Fantastic, that year Alcione went to Mangueira to record the music video for the Sunday show on Globo TV. She was greeted by Dona Zica, my grandmother, and Dona Neuma, the great ladies of Mangueira’s First Station. She discovered a portal on the hill that connected her directly to the ancestry that had forged her soul as a strong woman and her talent as an artist. To Marrom’s surprise and enchantment, the beat of the deaf one contained the echoes of all the drums she had heard echoing on her daring journey through her homeland up to that point. Regardless of the geography, Alcione was at home. Mangueira and Maranhão were the same place, a single Land of Enchantment.

The friendship with my grandmother Zica was a meeting of souls. Over time, grandma’s house was a welcoming place for an MPB icon, who now dreamed of green and pink. But Alcione’s dreams weren’t exactly what she wanted for herself; they were dreams that harbored the dreams of countless children who couldn’t achieve them. Mangueira’s girls and boys have always been her biggest occupation.

After discovering and collaborating with the fashion shows of the Império do Futuro children’s samba school, the daughter of Terra da Encantaria decided to create Mangueira do Amorrow, the children’s samba school at Estação Primeira. His movement would inspire countless other carnival associations in Rio de Janeiro to do the same. Almost 40 years later, master roommates, flag bearers, rhythmists, passists, drum queens, baianas, performers… many great samba players were trained in the children’s association.

But Alcione wanted and did more. In addition to transmitting to the new generations the multiple knowledge contained in samba as a form of expression, Marrom wanted Mangueira to train citizens. Those children who paraded needed to take care of their teeth, have recreational and sporting activities, sex education, notions of citizenship and belonging. This is how Vila Olímpica da Mangueira emerged, whose role as Marrom was decisive for its implementation.

The wolf from Maranhão is the forerunner of a work to empower black and poor bodies. Especially that of girls and women. For her, dreaming is necessary, always. The Debutantes Ball, which provides an unforgettable 15th birthday party for the girls of the hill, is another of her achievements, which transformed into reality what seemed unattainable for so many poor families in the hill.

She’s definitely not just any one. Alcione is a black samba woman who inspired other women, all over Brazil, to be strong. Always singing a woman aware of her desires, willing to conquer and have a voice; a woman always evolving over the decades. As if that were not enough, with professionalism and an unparalleled track record, she has conquered a space of reference in Brazilian Popular Music.

And here is a fundamental affective memory in my own life. At a certain stage in Alcione’s career, I had the opportunity to back up vocals in some shows and recordings. Today I share this legacy in the trajectory that I began with the group Matriarcas do Samba, formed by me and my sisters Vera de Jesus and Selma Candeia, who are, respectively, Clementina’s granddaughter and Candeia’s daughter.

More recently, Alcione has been the main artist to collaborate with the Samba Museum, an institution founded by me in 2001, located at the foot of Morro de Mangueira. Initially created to preserve the collection of my grandfather Cartola, it was named Centro Cultural Cartola and today it has the largest collection in the country on the History and Memory of Samba and Sambistas. Thank you, Alcione, for another front of struggle for the history of our people, for the non-erasure of our memory and for the inclusion of samba artists, artists who are often culturally and socially helpless.

Alcione’s love for Mangueira is so great that there’s no explanation. All the time following that encounter with Encantaria de Mangueira, back in 1975, Marrom was always on the front lines, shoulder to shoulder, with Verde e Rosa, in storms and bonanzas. Whether at shows to raise funds for the fashion show, or as a godmother to generations of children who needed care and support to continue dreaming and transforming the harsh reality.

Alcione is a woman who faces contempt, who shows the feminine strength of samba, which brings together and strengthens all the segments that make up the main genre and cultural manifestation in Brazil. Our reverence to this great woman and samba artist, this mangueirense wolf who lives up to the bamboo ring she deserves to wear.

Nilcemar Nogueira
Rio de Janeiro, September 2024

“For Being a Woman”

Love as a feminine, direct transitive verb, which necessarily requires complement and reciprocity. This is how the Queen of Samba combines her music, encouraging generations of women to free themselves from abusive, violent relationships, and to seek equality, respect, and pleasure in their relationships.

Throughout her career, Alcione weaves, with the chords of samba, a common thread with women from different times and places, reflecting their pain, denouncing oppressions, finding words and illuminating paths for necessary social changes.

This is the case, for example, in “The Wolf”, one of his greatest hits, where a woman declares herself passionate and faithful, but warns that she does not tolerate betrayal. The song denounces that male deviance, historically forgiven by women to protect the family, will no longer be tolerated – it may even be retaliated against: “Oh my king, you must know my law: I am a woman to leave you if you betray me. And find a new love just to distract myself. It rocks me but doesn’t destroy me, because lead change doesn’t hurt, I don’t eat in the hand of someone who plays with my emotions”.

“The Wolf” causes women of all generations to demand commitment and respect from their partners for the romantic relationships they build, while educating a sexist society for a responsible practice of love.

Marrom’s songs also invite reflection on self-love and help heal wounds of women who come out of abusive relationships doubting their worth. It’s like this, for example, in “Ideal Woman”: “You didn’t understand, you didn’t value it. You disowned it, my proof of love. But if someone was vulgar, that someone wasn’t me. Your wish asked, my love granted”; in “Woman’s Word”: “You tell me what you want, but you hear what you don’t want. It’s agreed that way, I learned to say no. And even my heart no longer says yes.”

Or also in “Woman, so what?” : “So, it doesn’t matter if you care. Either it’s interested or it doesn’t. That’s the end of the conversation, I’m coming back to life. Which I left outside, on the street.”

The love sung by Alcione is also revolutionary in that it is portrayed as a power and not as a feminine frailty. In “For Being a Woman”, she warns: “I reverse the rules of this game, whenever I want. In the middle of the sea I light the fire because I am a woman. My toy, our secret. Everything in love I know I can.”
From the first songs to the creations of her 50-year career, celebrated in 2024, Alcione, a black and Northeastern woman, makes her art a political and social act.

Her works are agents for feminism, understood, in the definition of bell hooks, as “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression”. Her most recent single, “Marra de Feroz”, is a song repudiating sexism, which calls on women to demand respect and not tolerate any violence. “You have to learn to respect a woman. See if it updates, I’m not just any one. Go straight, you sexist I’m confused too. Make your point, you can’t play with fire, no”.

The work is completed with a video where women are welcomed into a house, where they rediscover their strength and beauty together. The singer reigns covered in gold, surrounded by feminine powers like Conceição Evaristo, who together take care of each other, embrace each other, and celebrate sorority.

“Marra de Fieroz” is proof of how innovative, current and necessary Alcione remains. In the literality of the lyrics, in the welcoming atmosphere of samba, in the richness of common and everyday symbols, Alcione makes concepts and definitions of feminism accessible, includes them all in the circle, reminds us that love requires courage – which, in the Latin origin of the word, means action of the heart. And it invites an awakening of conscience and a fraternal, joyful, continuous, revolutionary movement of transformation. Like her.

Luciana Gondim
Rio de Janeiro, January 2025

A corner of light

The day was November 21st, one thousand nine hundred and forty-seven, when the Sun woke up early to receive that small beam of light that arrived to illuminate the planet’s artistic scene. It was Friday, in the small and quiet city of São Luís, when the first musical tones were heard, in the form of a cried, tuned, of what would become a star, one of the brightest, twinkling in the Brazilian musical constellation. Alcione was born.

Trimmed by the hands of God, this woman of great talent, with a firm, well-articulated singing and excellent sound, came into the world with the mission of (en) singing and writing her name in the annals of music. She did that homework very well, with her instrumented and clean voice. Her name is Pia Alcione Dias Nazareth, the fourth of nine children born to composer and conductor João Carlos Dias Nazareth and Felipa Teles Rodrigues, a launderette and household administrator. Offspring that grows when nine other children appear, all “independent productions” of the conductor. And so life goes on, with the Nazareth family taking the baton at the “Concerto da Boa Convivência”.

He went through his childhood expecting to disenchant the Black Bull; his youth gathering strength to face Ana Jansen and discover why the Serpent couldn’t find his head and his tail. That’s when I met her.

We were neighbors. Me, on Rua do Passeio; she, on Rua do Norte, where we built ourselves to face life. Since then, we have never separated our feelings of friendship, respect, and mutual admiration. We guard the mysteries of our city and never cease to exalt it in our art.

Time passes and Alcione flies to Rio de Janeiro in search of the future, the dream of recording an album, even if it were a compact; of showing his singing, even in small spaces; of being someone in the Brazilian capital of culture, without fear of competition and without thinking that what would come would be much greater than he expected. The result of this adventure is there, in the popular consecration, in what the specialized critics say, in its reference brand, in the permanent window that exhibits it. Alcione is unanimously positive.

In Rio, his artistic career begins with freshman programs, pleases, but they don’t give him space. The fight continues. Alcione was a being of light, shining like a star, so the inevitable happens: she came with the show The Great Chance, the chance she waited for: she was successful.

From then on, he became professional, went on a tour of South America, sang in Europe, where he lived for two years and recorded his first album when he returned to Brazil.

The first major success was Don’t Let Samba Die, which called for help to those who were dying. Soon after, there were many so many, which she eternalized with her voice, until she arrived at A Loba, the human metamorphosis of women. On Globo TV, she directed the show Alerta Geral, when she gave samba its true leading role in MPB and established herself as the greatest singer of its kind in the country.

Long live the brown one! Thus “renamed” by Coroné Ludugero, a Brazilian comedian, during a tour they took together in the Northeast, when he requested: “Marron, sing something romantic for my Marron”, the nickname of his wife. Ready, there was Alcione from a new “baptistery”.

It is also worth saying that Marrom is not just a samba singer, a rhythm that she carries in her soul, since she met him personally on the Mangueira ‘court’ and began to treat him as a close friend. Already from the First Station, he made one of his luxury items, indispensable in his closet of feelings. With an eclectic repertoire, she sings other musical genres, domestic and foreign, but it is with the romantic songs that she most moves and it was with them that she began to walk her journey.

In those 50 years of work, she has been awarded every honor that anyone could deserve. To name a few of the main ones: 26 Gold Records and seven Platinum Records; 21 Brazilian Music Awards, of which he was a reference in the year 2023, and the Latin Grammy, in the Best Album category. Honorary titles such as the Order of Rio Branco, Pedro Ernesto Medals and Timbira Merit, Honorary Citizen of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro and Soteropolitan Citizen also stand out.

The internationals: Diplome de Médaille d’Or (Société d’Arts, Sciences et Lettres de Paris); Ivory Thinker (Government of Angola); The Black Voice of Latin America (UNO). And others, others and others… Of those many, which together number about four hundred, none was more important to him than the dedication, affection and respect of the people, who always filled the hundreds of shows he performed on the stages of his life and the sales records that his records achieved.
Warrior, hardworking, friendly, charitable, empowered, professional, loving, intelligent, capable, present, beloved, singer, instrumentalist… phew! And that I have the honor of being a friend.

Alcione is a corner of light.

Augusto Cesar Maia, poet, chronicler and composer
October 2024