About this Artist

MARGARETH MENEZES is an award-winning Brazilian pop star with international recognition, having toured with David Byrne and recorded several albums released worldwide, which have been lauded by such publications as Billboard and Rolling Stone. She has also toured extensively throughout Europe, Brazil, and the U.S.

Margareth started singing at an early age. She began performing in theaters and nightclubs at age 21, and she quickly became a regular feature on the trio electricos (the enormous trucks carrying bands of performers through the streets) of the Bahia Carnaval. Her 11-piece band toured all around upstate Bahia, winning Margareth national recognition in 1985 with a Troféu Caymmi for Best Female Interpreter of Bahia. That same year she recorded her first solo album, Margareth Menezes, on Polygram.

She gained worldwide exposure in 1989 and 1990 touring with David Byrne in Europe and the U.S. Her second album, Elegibô, stayed in first place for 11 weeks on the American world music charts, and Rolling Stone magazine named the album one of the five best in the world in the same category. Subsequent international album releases in the 1990s included Canto Pra Subir, Kindala, Luz Dourada, and Gente de Festa. On these albums she recorded songs by musicians from Bahia and her own personal compositions.

Her most recent album, AfroPopBrasileiro, was released in 2002. She can be found performing all over Brazil as well as in her own trio elétrico during Carnaval.