Eugénia Melo e Castro, born Maria Eugénia Menéres de Melo e Castro (

Covilhã Covilhã (), officially Covilhã City (), is a city and a concelho, municipality in the Centro, Portugal, Centro region, Portugal. The city proper had 33,691 inhabitants in 2021. The municipality population in 2021 was 46,455 in an area of . It is ...

, 6 June 1958) is a Portuguese singer-songwriter.

Personal life

Eugénia was born in the city of

, central inland Portugal, in 1958, and lived in the city until she was 15. She left the city for studying in Lisbon. Her father, Ernesto de Melo e Castro, was a poet, professor and

textile engineer Textile manufacturing or textile engineering is a major Textile industry, industry. It is largely based on the conversion of fibre into yarn, then yarn into fabric. These are then Dyeing, dyed or printed, fabricated into cloth which is then con ...

(

Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

, United Kingdom) who earned a doctorate in literature from the

University of São Paulo The Universidade de São Paulo (, USP) is a public research university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, and the largest public university in Brazil. The university was founded on 25 January 1934, regrouping already existing schools in ...

, and her mother Maria Alberta Menéres, was a writer. Her grandfather, a chemical engineer, was a noted entrepreneur in the important textiles industrial sector of Covilhã. Her grandfather Ernesto was a conductor, composer, and violinist. Her first contact with the professional music scene came through collaborative works for

José Afonso José Manuel Cerqueira Afonso dos Santos (2 August 1929 – 23 February 1987), known professionally as José Afonso and also popularly known as Zeca Afonso, was a Portuguese singer-songwriter. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential ...

Vitorino Vitorino Salomé Vieira (born 11 July 1942), commonly known simply as Vitorino, is a Portuguese singer-songwriter. His music combines the Cante Alentejano, traditional music of his native region of Alentejo and urban popular song. Biography Vi ...

and

Sérgio Godinho Sérgio de Barros Godinho (; born 31 August 1945) is a Portuguese singer-songwriter, composer, actor, poet and author. Considered one of the most influential popular musicians in Portugal, Godinho started his music career singing folk songs of ...

, among others. Eugénia studied and lived in different locations during her teen years, and when she was 21, already divorced and mother of a girl, she went to Brazil to pursue her desire of being a singer-songwriter. She maintains houses in São Paulo (Brazil) and in Portugal. Melo e Castro has Portuguese Jewish ancestry.Eugénia a Solnik: “Em Portugal também estamos a passar por uma baixaria” (Brasil 247) https://www.brasil247.com/cultura/eugenia-a-solnik-em-portugal-tambem-estamos-a-passar-por-uma-baixaria

Career

Her first album, released in 1982,''Terra de Mel'', included collaborations of several Portuguese and Brazilian musicians. These associations have been often in the rest of her discography. Her music is framed in MPB (''Brazilian Popular Music''). She made theatre in 1977/78 with ''A Barraca'' (Portugal) and appeared in a number of movie and television works. In 2015 he releases his first children's album, "Conversas com Versos", 14 poems by his mother, taken from the book of the same name. Ney Matogrosso is her guest on this record, on the track O MEU CHAPÉU. In 2018 he releases MAR VIRTUAL, piano and voice, with Emilio Mendonça, dedicated to the work of his father, putting to music experimental poems, and concrete poetry.

Discography

* ''Terra de Mel'' (Polygram, 1982) * ''Águas de Todo O Ano'' (Polygram, 1983) * ''Eugénia Melo e Castro III'' (Polygram, 1986) * ' (EMI, 1988) * ''Canções e Momentos'' (Compilation, Polygram, 1989) * ''Amor é Cego e Vê'' (Polygram, 1990) * ''Lisboa Dentro de Mim'' (BMG, 1993) * ''Canta Vinicíus de Moraes'' (Megadiscos/Som Livre, 1994) * ''Ao Vivo Em São Paulo'' (Som Livre, 1996) * ''Canta Vinicíus de Moraes'' (Sony, 2000) * ''Ao Vivo Em São Paulo'' (Som Livre, 2000) * ''A Luz do Meu Caminho'' (MVM, 2000) * ''Recomeço'' (Som Livre, 2001) * ''Motor da Luz'' (Som Livre, 2001) * ''Paz'' (Som Livre, 2002) * ''Des Cons Tru Ção'' (Megamúsica/ Atração, 2005) * ''PoPortugal'' (Universal, 2007) * ''Paz'' (Universal, 2007) * ''Des Cons tru Ção'' (Universal, 2007) * ''Canta,canta mais '' (Farol, 2010) * ''Um gosto de sol '' (Selo SESC/BRASIL 2011)

Collections

* ''A música em Pessoa'' (1985) – Emissário De Um Rei Desconhecido * ''Bocage – O Triunfo do Amor'' (1998) – Liberdade * ''Songbook Chico Buarque'' (1999) – Tanto Mar (c/ Wagner Tiso)

External links

*
Official siteOfficial blog

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Melo e Castro, Eugenia 1958 births Living people People from Covilhã Portuguese women singer-songwriters Portuguese singer-songwriters Portuguese expatriates in Brazil Portuguese women writers People of Portuguese-Jewish descent