Aracy Cortes

Zilda de Carvalho Espíndola (March 31, 1904 – January 8, 1985), professionally known as Aracy Cortes, was a Brazilian singer, dancer and actress. She is best known for bringing the traditional Brazilian samba forms into theatre (see samba-canção) and for being the first artist to perform Ary Barroso's "Aquarela do Brasil" in 1939.

She was born in Estació, and raised by a very strict godmother. Her family moved to Catumbi, where her neighbor was a young boy who played the flute, Pixinguinha, the founder of the group Oito batutas.

Of her own initiative, she began singing in various theaters around the city, becoming known for her soprano voice and personal way of singing. This recognition came with the music "Que Pedaço," by Sena Pinto (1923), and another success immediately after, "Jura," by Sinhô (1928). Her recordings from the late 1920s had an influence on the interpretive style of Carmen Miranda in the 1930s. She launched other unknown artists as well in the 1930s: Ary Barroso and Assis Valente. She was the star of the Teatro de Revista da Praça Tiradentes, and the Teatro Recreio in Rio de Janeiro. With performances running in the revue theaters that gathered the cream of the artistic crop, she was projected as the first major popular woman singer, standing out among the almost exclusivism of the masculine voices of the time. She was also the first performer of "Aquarela do Brasil" (Ary Barroso), the first and most important Brazilian song exported to the USA, inaugurating the samba-exaltação genre and becoming one of the genre's biggest names.

Greatest Hits

1925 - Petropolitana 1925 - Serenata de Toselli 1925 - A Casinha (A Casinha da Colina) 1926 - Serenata de Toselli 1928 - Chora, Violão 1928 - Jura 1929 - Ai, Ioiô 1929 - Yaya (Linda flor) 1929 - "A polícia já foi lá em casa" 1929 - "Vão por mim" - com Francisco Alves 1929 - "Baianinha" 1930 - Você Não Era Assim 1931 - Quero Sossego 1931 - Reminiscências 1932 - Tem Francesa no Morro 1932 - Dentinho de Ouro 1932 - Que é Que…? 1951 - Eu Sou Assim 1951 - Eu Sou Assim