Acting
Maria Bethânia
Maria Bethânia Viana Teles Veloso (born 18 June 1946) is a Brazilian singer and songwriter. Born in Santo Amaro, Bahia, she started her career in Rio de Janeiro in 1964 with the show "Opinião" ("Opinion"). Due to its popularity, with performances all over the country, and the popularity of her 1965 single "Carcará", the artist became a star in Brazil.
Bethânia is the sister of the singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso and of the writer-songwriter Mabel Velloso, as well as being aunt of the singers Belô Velloso and Jota Velloso. The singer has released 50 studio albums in 47 years of career, and is among the 10 best-selling music artists in Brazil, having sold more than 26 million records. Bethânia was ranked in 2012, by Rolling Stone Brasil magazine, as the fifth-biggest voice of Brazilian music.
Bethânia is the sixth out of eight children born into the family of José Telles Veloso (Seu Zeca), a government official, and Claudionor Viana Telles Veloso (Dona Canô), a housewife.
The name Maria Bethânia was chosen by her brother Caetano Veloso after the homonymous hit song written by composer Capiba and famous at the time in the voice of Nélson Gonçalves.
In her childhood, she had aspirations to become an actress. However, her mother was a musician, so music was prevalent in the Veloso household. Though Bethânia was born in Santo Amaro da Purifição, her family moved to Salvador, Bahia when she was 13. The move allowed her to experience the bohemian, intellectual circles of the city, as well as to visit theaters. When she was 16, her brother Caetano Veloso invited her to sing in a film for which he was producing the soundtrack, but she refused. Nevertheless, the film's director, Álvaro Guimarães, liked her voice and invited the young musician to perform in the 1963 Nélson Rodrigues's musical Boca de Ouro. This time Bethânia accepted, and for the first time in her life she went on stage to sing for an audience, opening the play performing a samba by Ataulfo Alves.
That same year, Bethãnia and her sister met singers Gilberto Gil and Gal Costa; Caetano had been invited to put on an MPB show to inaugurate the Teatro Vila Velha. The four artists got together and, in 1964, staged Nós, por exemplo (We, for example).
The show was a success and was presented again twenty months later, with the participation of singer-songwriter Tom Zé. That same year, the group mounted another show called Nova Bossa Velha e Velha Bossa Nova (New Old Bossa and Old New Bossa). Still in that year, directed by Caetano and Gil, Bethânia performed another musical, this time on her own, called Mora na Filosofia (Lives in Philosophy).
She began performing again with her brother, as well as Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and Tom Zé, at the opening of the Vila Velha Theater in the next year. During one of these performances, the bossa nova musician Nara Leão offered her an opportunity to take her place in a series of performances titled "Opinião". ...
Source: Article "Maria Bethânia" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Filmography
Browse movies and TV shows featuring Maria Bethânia
Le Grand Échiquier
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Criança Esperança
Chico & Caetano
Todo Mundo no Rio com Shakira
On the iconic sands of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Shakira sets Copacabana Beach ablaze in the third edition of “To...
O Nome Dela é Gal
A four-part biography on the life of the Brazilian singer Gal Costa, from her humble beginning singing in the s...
Os Afro-Sambas: The Brazil of Baden and Vinicius
Released in 1966 by Vinicius de Moraes and Baden Powell, the record Os Afro-Sambas is one of Brazil's most reve...
Ritas
It explores Rita Lee's personal life and her creative process, revealing her musical talent and her ability to...
The Girl from Ipanema
Chronicles the life of a 17 year-old girl living in the upper-class Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood of Ipanema. Má...
The Man Who Bought the World
In a fictitious country, a civil servant receives the greatest inheritance in history (ten trillion dollars) an...
O Canto Livre de Nara Leão
Nara Leão revolutionized Brazilian music, broke prejudices, confronted the military dictatorship, opened paths...
Caetano e Bethânia Ao Vivo
Com a Palavra, Arnaldo Antunes
From his origins as a poet to his success as a singer and composer, Arnaldo Antunes revisits the most remarkabl...
Pitanga
This documentary investigates the aesthetic, political and existential trajectory of emblematic Black Brazilian...
Phono 73: A Country and its Music
The biggest Brazilian historical festival of all time. The great cast of the 1973 Phonogram (now Universal Musi...
Vinicius de Moraes
To celebrate the life and the work of a multifaceted creator – playwright, poet, partner of the most important...
The Man Who Bottled Clouds
A host of personalities reminisce about the life and work of songwriter, lawyer, and congressman Humberto Teixe...
Nas Ondas de Dorival Caymmi
The film reveals the creation of poet Dorival Caymmi's musical works with testimonies from researchers, journal...
Ana Carolina - Multishow Registro Ana Car9lina + Um: 9+1
Ferreira Gullar: Arqueologia do Poeta
The intense life of Ferreira Gullar, one of the most influential poets in Brazil, is revisited by his personal...
The Dare
Passively facing the repression imposed by military dictatorship in 1960s Brazil, a journalist enters a persona...
Saravah
Documentary about Brazilian music circa 1969, with extremely rare scenes, such as the only color footage of Pix...
Memórias do Grupo Opinião
Follows the story of Opinião, a theatre group created in 1964 during the early Brazilian dictatorship period to...
Bethânia Bem de Perto: A Propósito de um Show
Documentary about Maria Bethânia, at the very beginning of her career as a singer, when she arrived in Rio da B...
Luiz Melodia - Within the Heart of Brazil
A sound and visual journey that portrays the life and work of singer and composer Luiz Melodia. The Poet of Est...
Chico: Brazilian Artist
Chico Buarque is a constant presence in Brazil's art scene and makes up its citizen's popular culture. This wea...
Os Doces Bárbaros
The film records the commemorative tour of the ten years of the career of the Bahia singers Caetano Veloso, Gil...
Ana Carolina - Estampado
O DVD intitulado Estampado da cantora e compositora Ana Carolina traz grandes sucessos e músicas inéditas na vo...
Entangling Shadows
Documentary that celebrates 100 years of cinema in Latin America and talks about the origins and the developmen...
Improvised and Purposeful: Cinema Novo
Originally produced for German TV, Improvised and Purposeful is a firsthand look at the "Cinema Novo" movement...
Brasil
João Gilberto receives Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil and Maria Bethânia during the recording of his album Brasil.
Mulher 80
Mulher 80 emerged as a result of the success of 'Malu Mulher' (1979), a miniseries starring Regina Duarte, whic...
Gal - from Tropicalism to the Present Day
The film has Gal's career as its guiding principle, drawing a parallel with the movement of which the singer wa...
Outros (Doces) Bárbaros
Almost thirty years after the first reunion of Doces Bárbaros (four of Brazil's major popular music stars: Caet...
Maria Bethânia e Zeca Pagodinho: De Santo Amaro a Xerém
Jards Macalé - Um Morcego na Porta Principal
This film shines a light at the story of Jards Macalé, polemic artist and controversial character of Brazilian...