Family and friends gathered in Brazil to pay their respects to legendary samba singer Elza Soares.
for inspiring “so many from Brazil and around the world,” while Rio’s Mayor Eduardo Paes declared three days of mourning.Soares rose to stardom in spite of a difficult upbringing and being a Black woman in a country where slavery has left a stark legacy of inequality. She often spoke critically of the country’s problems, and overcoming those obstacles contributed to her mythical persona.
She often told the story behind her distinctive raspy voice: Growing up, she had to carry water jugs balanced atop her head while walking through her favela. “I picked up a jug, and I groaned,” she said in one interview, illustrating her words with a deep, harsh sound. “And I thought this gave it a swing.”
“If I didn’t sing, I would die,” Soares said in a more recent television interview, in 2002. “Singing to not go crazy.” But Soares, a fiercely independent woman and feminist well ahead of her time, distanced herself from the attention on their relationship and then marriage.