Marina Lima

Starting her career before Brazilian rock of the '80s was commercially ripe, Marina Lima witnessed its creation from a privileged standpoint and participated in it as a successful pop star since 1984. Her most regular partner has been her brother, philosopher Antônio Cícero. Her biggest hits are "Fullgás" (Marina/Antônio Cícero), "À Francesa" (Marina/Antônio Cícero), "Pra Começar" (Marina/Antônio Cícero), "Nada Por Mim" (Herbert Viana/Paula Toller), "Eu Te Amo Você" (Kiko Zambianchi), "Ainda É Cedo," "Não Sei Dançar," and "Uma Noite e Meia." Her eclectic repertory features rock-tinged pop-dance music, blues, bossa nova, a typical samba-canção melancholy, and a very tiny pinch of jazz.

From five to 12, she lived in the U.S. where her father worked, and was taught to read in English before Portuguese. Attracted to psychoanalysis and music, Marina Lima (just Marina by then; she added her surname to her stage name in the '90s) started to write songs, opting for making a living in this career when Gal Costa recorded her "Meu Doce Amor" in 1977. The next year she formed a band that had a drummer who would be connected with the creation and the development of the Brazilian rock of the '80s, Lobão. Ricardo Barreto (guitar), Guto Barros (guitar), Zé Luís (sax), and Junno Homrich (bass) would also participate in that historic moment (they later became musicians of the seminal Brazilian rock band Blitz) as they were also in her band before the new genre took Brazil. Marina's first solo album, Simples Como Fogo (1979), already brought originals in the pop/rock style that would become mainstream in the next decade. But her first hit came in 1984, with "Fullgás," which had success with the title track "Me Chama" (Lobão) and "Mesmo que Seja Eu" (Roberto Carlos/Erasmo Carlos, here having its meaning altered as a confession of her bisexuality). Three years later, she appeared in the film Rádio Pirata (Lael Rodrigues) singing the main theme, which she also composed. With 15 albums released in Brazil as 2000, others were launched especially for the American market and dominated a period in which anxiety provoked a loss of voice; Marina Lima is one of the biggest divas of Brazilian rock.