Rosanna Tavares (born 7 November 1961 in Nanuque, Minas Gerais – died 9 October 2006 in

Belo Horizonte, Brazil Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...

) was a Brazilian singer, percussionist and guitarist. She was known as the lead singer of Rosanna & Zélia, a duo which received much critical acclaim in much of mainland Europe.

Early life

Rosanna Tavares enjoyed singing and began participating in her first singing contests when she was as young as eight years old. In 1974, her family moved from

Itaúna Itaúna is a municipality in the state of Minas Gerais in the Southeast region of Brazil. See also *List of municipalities in Minas Gerais This is a list of the municipalities in the state of Minas Gerais (MG), located in the Southeast R ...

near the

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...

n border, to

Belo Horizonte Belo Horizonte (, ; ) is the sixth-largest city in Brazil, with a population around 2.7 million and with a metropolitan area of 6 million people. It is the 13th-largest city in South America and the 18th-largest in the Americas. The metropol ...

, where they quickly came into contact with the wide-ranging music scene in the capital of

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

. It was there she was first introduced to Zélia Fonseca, with whom she performed alongside for 30 years.

Career

After discovered that the band's music had been very successful in Europe, Rosanna & Zélia began more extensive touring, with much time spent in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

. Their paths led through France and Finland to Germany, where in 1993, they finally settled in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. The duo collaborated with many musicians of

Latin American Latin Americans ( es, Latinoamericanos; pt, Latino-americanos; ) are the citizens of Latin American countries (or people with cultural, ancestral or national origins in Latin America). Latin American countries and their diasporas are multi-eth ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

scene, including

Dino Saluzzi Timoteo "Dino" Saluzzi (born 20 May 1935) is an Argentinian bandoneon player. He is the son of Cayetano Saluzzi and the father of guitarist José Maria Saluzzi. Early life, family and education Timoteo "Dino" Saluzzi was born in Campo Santo, ...

Howard Levy Howard Levy (born July 31, 1951) is an American multi-instrumentalist. A keyboardist and virtuoso harmonica player, Levy "has been realistically presented as one of the most important and radical harmonica innovators of the twentieth century. ...

Katharina Franck Katharina Franck (born July 28, 1963) is a German singer, songwriter, and musician. She first achieved fame as singer, songwriter, and guitarist of pop rock band the Rainbirds in the late 1980s. Besides her work with Rainbirds, she was also a mem ...

, Shantel and German

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

producer,

Ian Pooley Ian Pooley (born Ian Pinnekamp in 1973) is a German record producer and DJ. While incorporating samples of various musical genres, Pooley's creations are usually classified as house or tech house with Brazilian influence. Biography Pooley's mu ...

Death

The last two years of her life were determined by her own fight with cancer, which unfortunately proved too difficult. Rosanna Tavares died on 9 October 2006 in

, the city where she had met Zélia Fonseca, and began her career in music.

References

External links

Official website – Rosanna & Zélia

Interview with Rosanna Tavares – Alomusica
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tavares, Rosanna 1961 births 2006 deaths People from Minas Gerais Deaths from cancer in Minas Gerais 20th-century Brazilian women singers 20th-century Brazilian singers 21st-century Brazilian women singers 21st-century Brazilian singers