Vera Brasil

Origin

São Paulo, SP

Also known as

Vera Lelot

Years active

1950–2012

Genres

bossa nova, mpb

Instruments

violão

Biography

Vera Brasil, stage name of Vera Lelot, was born in São Paulo on May 7, 1932. The daughter of composer Ulysses Lelot Filho — who signed his works as Sivan Castelo Neto and later became her musical partner —, she began her career in songwriting in the 1950s, quickly becoming associated with the bossa nova movement. Throughout her career, she wrote more than one hundred songs and had her works interpreted by major names in Brazilian music, such as Elis Regina, Maysa, Jair Rodrigues, and Elizeth Cardoso.

In addition to being a singer and songwriter, she worked as a classical guitarist and arranger, founding a school in São Paulo in the 1980s where she applied her own teaching method using audiovisual techniques. In 2002, her importance was celebrated in a show that featured the participation of Gilberto Gil, and in 2008 she recorded her art on the traditional TV Cultura program Ensaio.

In the final years of her life, she resided on a country estate in the municipality of Araçoiaba da Serra, São Paulo. Vera Brasil passed away on July 18, 2012, at the age of eighty, after living with Alzheimer's disease for a few years. Her contribution to Brazilian popular music remains alive through her striking compositions and her pedagogical legacy.