Elis Regina Carvalho Costa, known professionally as Elis Regina, was a Brazilian singer of popular and jazz music. She became nationally renowned in 1965 after singing "Arrastão" in the first edition of TV Excelsior festival song contest and soon joined O Fino da Bossa, a television program on TV Record. She was noted for her vocalization as well as for her interpretation and performances in shows. Her recordings include "Como Nossos Pais", "Upa Neguinho", "Madalena", "Casa no Campo", "Águas de Março", "Atrás da Porta", "O Bêbado e a Equilibrista", "Conversando no Bar". Her untimely death, at the age of 36, shocked Brazil.
Biography
Elis Regina was born in Porto Alegre, where she began her career as a singer at an early age on the children's radio showClube de Guri. In her early teens she signed a record contract and a couple years later traveled to Rio de Janeiro, where she recorded her first album. She won her first festival song contest in 1965 singing "Arrastão" by Edu Lobo and Vinícius de Moraes, which made her the biggest selling Brazilian recording artist since Carmen Miranda. Her second album, Dois na Bossa with Jair Rodrigues, set a national sales record and became the first Brazilian album to sell over one million copies. "Arrastão" increased her popularity because the festival was broadcast via TV and radio. The record represented the beginning of música popular brasileira and contrasted with bossa nova. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, she helped popularize tropicalismo with Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil, and Caetano Veloso. Regina was nicknamed "hurricane" and "little pepper". She moved to Rio around the time Brazil was ruled by a military group. Although her popularity protected her from reprisal when she criticized the regime while on tour in Europe, she was threatened with imprisonment unless she sang the Brazilian national anthem at an event honoring the anniversary of the coup. In the 1970s she recorded the albumElis and Tom in Los Angeles with Antonio Carlos Jobim. In 1982 she was starting her third marriage when she died from a combination of alcohol and cocaine at the age of thirty-six.
Death
On January 19, 1982, Regina died at the age of 36 from an accidental cocaine overdose. More than 15,000 people including friends and relatives attended and sang her songs at a wake held in the Teatro Bandeirantes in São Paulo. More than 100,000 people and fans then followed her funeral procession throughout São Paulo. She was buried in Cemitério do Morumbi. In 2016, her life was portrayed in a movie, where her role was interpreted by Andréia Horta. The film was directed by Hugo Prata.
