Maria Creuza: Queen of Brazilian Ballads

As part of my ongoing series on great female Brazilian pop singers of the 1960s and '70s, I'm focusing today on Maria Creuza. In particular, I'm looking at the 10 or so albums she recorded for Brazilian RCA from 1973 to 1982. Born in 1944, Creuza's specialty were ballads about heartbreak, and she was Vinicius de Moraes' favorite interpreter of his songs. In fact, Creuza toured extensively worldwide with de Moraes and Toquinho.

These RCA records are splendidly arranged with a Brazilian pop feel, and Creuza's voice is passionate and delicate. I first discovered Creuza in the early 1980s, when I pulled her Sessão Nostalgia loose from a friend's record collection. The album on Brazilian vinyl knocked me out, and I began collecting her recordings. Sessão Nostalgia, with its deeply romantic feel, remains one of my very favorite Brazilian vocal albums.

Before providing you with audio clips of Creuza's music, here are links to the other singers in my running series: Syliva Telles, Nara Leão, Eliana Pittman and Elis Regina.

Now, here are clips from nine of Maria Creuza's RCA albums:

Here's Nossos Momentos from Eu Disse Adeus (1973)...



Here's Vinganca from Sessão Nostalgia (1974)...



Here's O Namoro de Maria from Maria Creuza and the Grand Masters of Samba (1975)...



Here's Dom de Iludir from Meia Noite (1977)



Here's Algemas from Doce veneno (1978)...



Here's Boleríssimo from Pecado (1979)...



Here's Tá Faltando from Maria Creuza (1980)...



Here's A Felicidade from Sedução (1981)...



And here's Garota De Ipanema from Poético (1982)...



Bonus: Here's Creuza in 1977...