Mart'nália

Mart'nália, born Martnália Mendonça Ferreira in the Vila Isabel section of Rio de Janeiro, takes her name from a blend of her parents': the samba composer Martinho da Vila and the singer Analia Mendonca. She grew up surrounded by music and began her professional life at sixteen, singing backing vocals for her father alongside her sister, Analimar, well before she started recording under her own name.

Through the mid-1990s she built a following performing in the bars, nightclubs and theaters of Rio, work that led to her first solo samba album, Minha cara. In 1994 she also joined the group Batacotô, whose percussionist was Ivan Lins, adding percussion work to her singing career.

She sings samba with a loose, behind-the-beat phrasing that owes as much to jazz singing as to the terreiro, and her records mix her own compositions with songs by Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso and her father. Caetano Veloso directed and wrote the title track for her album Pé de meu samba, and Maria Bethânia produced Menino do Rio; both records brought her wider attention and led to touring across Europe and Africa.

She often performs seated with a pandeiro or cavaquinho, in small-group settings rather than large percussion batteries. Her album Em Samba! Ao vivo earned a Latin Grammy nomination in 2015, Misturado won the award for Best Samba/Pagode Album in 2017, and Mart'nália Canta Vinicius de Moraes brought her a third nomination in 2019.