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Elba Maria Nunes Ramalho or Elba Ramalho, fourth daughter of the couple João Nunes de Souza and Maria Geni Ramalho. The couple’s children, in order, are: Everaldo, Everton, Ednovalda (Vavá), Elba, Eracliton and João Nunes Filho, all born also in Conceição/PB.
Elba Ramalho was born August 17, 1951, in the interior of Paraíba, municipality of Conceição, better known as Conceição do Vale do Piancó. Daughter of a musician, she began to take an interest in music in her teens, when she lived in Campina Grande.
In 1962, Elba Ramalho s family moved to Campina Grande PB, where her father became the owner of the city’s cinema and Elba took the old gymnasium course.
Four years later, she stepped on stage for the first time, in a presentation of the Choir of the Manuel Bandeira Artistic and Cultural Foundation, of which she was a member.
While studying sociology and economics at the Federal University of Paraíba, she formed the female ensemble As Brasas.
In 1974, Roberto Santana, producer of Chico Buarque and Caetano Veloso, to perform as crooner alongside Quinteto Violado during a season in Rio de Janeiro. When it came time to return to the Northeast, Elba Ramalho refused to do so.
Biografia de Elba Ramalho
She decided to abandon everything (including her university course in her final year) and stay in Rio de Janeiro, without any support or financial resources. Starting to frequent Baixo Leblon, she met artists like Alceu Valença and Carlos Vereza.
Still in 1974 Elba Ramalho participated in the play Viva o Cordão Encarnado, with the theater group Chegança, by Luís Mendonça, drawing the attention of critics for her hyperactivity on stage, which would become her main characteristic.
Other montages came until in 1978 Elba Ramalho participated in the play Ópera do Malandro, by Chico Buarque, a great montage directed by Luiz Antonio Martinez Corrêa. Elba played the role of the prostitute Lúcia. Also in the cast were names like Otávio Augusto (Max), Marieta Severo (Terezinha) and Emiliano Queiroz (Geni).
Ópera do Malandro was released at a time when Chico Buarque’s poetics were “razor sharp”. Elba Ramalho was a prominent presence, which boosted her career as an actress and singer.
In view of this, Chico Buarque inserted a recording O meu amor interpreted by Marieta Severo and Elba Ramalho for the album that had her name as its title, released in 1978.
The song became eternalized and the success gave Elba the opportunity to record her first album, by CBS, in 1979, entitled Ave de prata.
From then on, Elba Ramalho focused more on her singing career, although, according to herself, the theater is in all her shows, being the great responsible for her peculiar scenic force.
In 1980 Elba Ramalho recorded her second LP, Capim do vale, and made her first international tour, in Africa. The following year she took part in the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland and released the album Elba.
In 1982 she released the album Alegria, selling more than 300,000 copies in Brazil alone, and performed in Europe and Israel.
In 1983 Elba Ramalho released the album Coração Brasileiro and became a permanent fixture in the top tier of MPB. The song Banho de cheiro (Smell Bath) hit the charts, leading to a string of hits from the same album.
Coração Brasileiro quickly won gold and platinum records, and the concert of the same name, held at Canecão, broke for the first time the audience records registered there in Roberto Carlos’ shows. Elba was on the cover of Veja, and the magazine considered her “the biggest star of Brazilian music in 1983”. The singer was also the subject of Rede Globo’s end-of-year special.
Since then Elba Ramalho has been regarded as one of the leading performers in Brazilian music, with significant sales thanks to her stage presence and unmistakable voice. At the annual São João festival in Campina Grande, Elba’s presence is already traditional, as the most anticipated show. In February 1989, at the age of 37, she did a restrained photo shoot for Playboy magazine.
Elba Ramalho was married to model Gaetano Lopes (1995-2008), with whom she has two daughters, Maria Clara, adopted in 2000, and Maria Esperança, adopted in 2007, and was also married to actor and singer Maurício Mattar, with whom she had a son, Luã (1987).
In 2001 a journalist from Veja magazine claimed in an article that Elba Ramalho had said at a ufology congress in Curitiba that she had been chipped by aliens. The claim led to a lawsuit for moral damages against the magazine, but the verdict announced in 2006 did not win for the singer.
Biography of singer Elba Ramalho
