A soul, folk and jazz singer who recorded songs by José Afonso and, in 1971, the poems of “Minha Senhora de Mim” (My Lady of Myself), by Maria Teresa Horta. After 25 April she sang “Mulheres Guerrilheiras” (Guerrilla Women), announced as the first Portuguese feminist record.
She was born in Lisbon in 1944.2 RTP remembers her as one of the most versatile voices of the 1960s — soul, gospel, folk, jazz, rock and the worlds of José Afonso — and as a contestant in the Festival RTP da Canção (RTP Song Festival).3 She sang “Vai, Maria Vai” (Go, Maria, Go) on the record Contos Velhos, Rumos Novos (Old Tales, New Paths), by José Afonso, and in 1970 she recorded a whole record of his songs.2
In May 1971 the record Minha Senhora de Mim (My Lady of Myself) was presented together with the book: poems by Maria Teresa Horta set to music by Nuno Filipe, in her voice.4 According to the musicologist Luís Freitas Branco, the record soon disappeared from the shops, and when she sang those songs at the Coliseu she was booed by an audience that found them too sensual.5
After 25 April she recorded “Mulheres Guerrilheiras” (Guerrilla Women), also with a poem by Maria Teresa Horta, which a news item in O Século, quoted on Wikipedia, presented as the “first Portuguese feminist record”, launched at a show by the Women’s Liberation Movement.2 She died on 7 November 2003.2
When she sang the songs of “Minha Senhora de Mim” at the Coliseu and was booed: the musicologist Luís Freitas Branco tells the story without a date.
When “Mulheres Guerrilheiras” came out and when the Women’s Liberation Movement show at the Vasco Santana Theatre took place: Wikipedia dates the record to December 1974, with a doubt.
The dates of birth and death come only from Wikipedia.
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Sources5
1Teresa Paula Brito, por João Carlos Callixto (Gramofone). RTP Memória — consulted on 4 October 2026Depois do 25 de Abril gravou um single com originais de Pedro Jordão, editado com o Movimento de Libertação das Mulheres; a sua morte, em 2003, «passou relativamente despercebida».
