Nara Leão

2022 marked the 80th anniversary of the birth of Nara Leão. A singer, songwriter and guitarist, Nara became known as the Muse of Bossa Nova. The five-part documentary “O Canto Livre de Nara Leão” (Nara Leão’s Free Singing), available on Globoplay, deconstructs this title by showcasing an artist and woman much greater than any one musical style.

After her first record, Nara (1964), the artist already embarked on a path other than that of bossa nova. In Opinião (1964), her second work, she placed herself as a protest singer, going against the newly installed military dictatorship. Shortly thereafter, she would win 1966’s Brazilian Popular Music Festival, performing A Banda, a song by Chico Buarque, thus reaching the mainstream Brazilian audience. She made recordings with Dominguinhos and Fagner, Erasmo and Roberto, and, in 1968, she participated in the manifesto-record Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis, which inaugurated the Brazilian tropicalist movement.

A free soul, Nara was many people at once. All this plurality can be seen in the unmissable documentary series, directed by Renato Terra. We also invite you to watch Nara Leão in her appearance on the Ensaio program, from TV Cultura, dated 1973.