With a career spanning six decades, dozens of classic albums and 5 GRAMMY awards, Milton Nascimento is truly a Brazilian and world music icon. He has influenced and collaborated with major artists in Brazil, Latin America, Europe and the United States, gaining worldwide fame through his projects with Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Jon Anderson of Yes, Paul Simon and Sting. The New York Times considers Nascimento as "one of the greatest musicians alive." The 1972 classic album “Clube da Esquina” was hailed by the press in Brazil as the greatest Brazilian album of all time. 

Milton was born in a favela in the Tijuca neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. Son of the maid Maria do Carmo do Nascimento, who was abandoned pregnant by her first boyfriend. Maria do Carmo registered her son as a single mother. Even very poor, she tried to raise Milton, with the help of her mother, a widow, also a maid, but, still very young, she fell into depression, and died of tuberculosis before Milton was two years old. Milton was left in the care of his grandmother. 

One of the two daughters of the couple for whom her grandmother worked, music teacher Lília Silva Campos, was newly married and unable to conceive. Immediately, Lilia became attached to Milton and proposed to adopt him. The grandmother agreed, as long as they brought him to see him a few times and didn't take his mother's name off the record. The couple agreed and Milton was then adopted by Lília and her husband Josino Campos, who owned a radio station. The family moved to Três Pontas, in Minas Gerais. For a few years he was an only child. Even undergoing treatment, Lilia did not get pregnant. The couple then went on to visit orphanages and adopted a boy and, a few years later, a girl. The couple only had one biological daughter a few years later. Milton always knew he was adopted, just like his brothers. 

He was nicknamed "Bituca" as a child, for pouting when he was upset, in reference to the Botocudo Indians. Milton began to like music due to the influence of his mother, who had studied with Villa Lobos. At the age of four, he won a an accordion, and from an early age he explored his voice. At the age of 13, he was the singer of the Continental Ensemble by Duilio Tiso Cougo, a dance group from Três Pontas. 

Milton married at the registry office and at Igreja dos Capuchinhos, in Tijuca, in 1968, with a student named Lurdeca. The couple went to live in Copacabana, but the marriage only lasted a month. After two months apart, the marriage annulment came, returning to single marital status. He later had several girlfriends, one of them, named Kárita, a very wealthy socialite from São Paulo, who was his girlfriend for over five years. Choosing to invest his time in his artistic career, he did not want to marry or have children, only maintaining casual relationships. Living alone, Milton then decided to be a father, and adopted Augusto, his only child, who was born on June 3, 1993. Milton met him when the boy was 13 years old, in 2005, in Juiz de Fora, the city where Augusto resided since childhood. The son always maintained a relationship with his mother, Sandra, but, from a very young age, he had no bond with his biological father. Milton clung to him like a father and asked if he wanted to be his son. Augusto accepted and began to divide his time between Juiz de Fora and Rio de Janeiro. When the boy turned 23, in 2016, he was officially adopted, signing Augusto Kesrouani do Nascimento, keeping his mother's surname, and including his father's "Nascimento". In interviews, Milton revealed that his son was the greatest gift he received. 

He recorded his first song, "Barulho de Trem", in 1962. In Três Pontas, he was part, alongside Wagner Tiso, of the group W's Boys, which played at ballroom dances. He moved to Belo Horizonte to study economics, where, playing in bars and nightclubs, he began to compose more often; the compositions "Novena" and "Gira Girou" (1964) date from that time, both with Márcio Borges. 

In 1966 Milton wrote, in partnership with César Roldão Vieira, the songs for the children's play "Viagem ao Faz de Conta" by Walter Quaglia. In 1967, according to the excerpt on the back cover of the album Milton e Tamba Trio: "Milton Nascimento entered the studio accompanied by the 'Tamba Trio', in Rio de Janeiro, in 1967, to record his first album. The meeting of 'Milton & Tamba' with the arrangements of Luizinho Eça make 'Travessia' a definitive and eternally modern album." In the previous year, 1966, the composition "Canção do Sal" was recorded by Elis Regina. At the invitation of musician Eumir Deodato, he recorded an LP in the United States (Courage), in which they recorded a version of "Travessia" called "Bridges". In 1970, he performed seasons in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo with the group “Som Imaginário”, highlighting from this period “Para Lennon e McCartney” (1970, with Fernando Brant, Márcio Borges and Lo Borges) and Clube da Esquina. He participated in and composed the soundtrack for films such as The Gods and the Dead (1969, directed by Ruy Guerra), and acted in Fitzcarraldo (1981, directed by Werner Herzog). 

At the boarding house where he went to live in the capital of Minas Gerais, in the Levy Building, Milton met the Borges brothers, Marilton, Lô and Márcio. From the encounters on the corner of Divinópolis and Paraisópolis streets, in the traditional Belo Horizonte neighborhood of Santa Tereza, the chords and lyrics of songs such as "Cravo e Canela", "Alunar", "Para Lennon e McCartney", "Trem Azul", "Nada sera como antes", "Estrelas", "São Vicente" and "Cais". These Beatles and Platters fans were joined by Tavinho Moura, Flavio Venturini, Beto Guedes, Fernando Brant, Toninho Horta. In 1972, EMI recorded the first LP, Clube da Esquina, which was a double album.  

Milton Nascimento was invited by Wayne Shorter to record an album with him in 1975. The album was called Native Dancer and served to project Milton in the North American market and around the world.  

Among other songs, there is "Maria Maria" (1978, with Fernando Brant), and the interpretation of "Coração de Estudante" (Wagner Tiso), which became the anthem of Diretas Já (a socio-political movement demanding direct elections in 1984) and the funeral of presidential candidate Tancredo Neves (1985). Subsequently, "Cancao da America" was the background theme for Ayrton Senna's funeral (1994). 

Originally conceived for the the Balé Teatro Guaíra (Curitiba, 1982), the show “O Grande Circo Místico” was launched in 1983. Milton was part of a select group of MPB performers who traveled the country for two years presenting the project. Milton performed the song "Beatriz", composed by the duo Chico Buarque and Edu Lobo. The show tells the love story between an aristocrat and an acrobat and the saga of the Swiss family that owns Circus Knie, who roamed the world in the first decades of the century. 

Still committed to the social vein of the post-dictatorship era, he participated in 1985 in Nordeste Já, the Brazilian version of USA for Africa that created the songs "Chega de Mágoa" and "Seca D'água". 

In 2010 Milton Nascimento was honored at the Belo Horizonte International Festival of Choirs (FIC). At the end of the festival Milton was present and received a tribute from more than a thousand voices who sang a composition by Fernando Brant and Leonardo Cunha "A Voz Coral" made especially for the honoree. 

In addition, that same year, the singer who is also the godfather of the band Roupa Nova, was honored by the sextet in a special participation on the band's live CD/DVD in the track "Nos Bailes da Vida", composed by Milton, as a form of thanks for what he has done for the group during the 30 years of his career. 

Director Marcelo Flores is preparing a film celebrating the 50th anniversary of the singer's career, “Milton – A Voz”. A hybrid of documentary and fiction, the film will include, in addition to current scenes, recreations of passages from Milton's life with the musician played by Fabrício Boliveira. 

The samba school Tom Maior made Milton its theme for the 2016 parade themed: Travessias de Milton Nascimento, in honor of its 50-year career and a party with the participation of the KLB group, Sandra de Sá, Fat Family and Erikka Rodrigues . 

In May 2015, he was invited by Berklee College of Music to be the honoree of the year at the graduation of the 2016 graduates and to receive the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from that institution, for his vast contribution to music.