Nara Leão - English

Nara Leao was perhaps the women who was most involved with the Bossa Nova movement, which began in the late 1950s. She is known as the "muse of Bossa Nova", although she was definitely much more than that. She began having her friends over to sing and play guitar at an early age at her parents' house in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro. Some of her well known friends were Roberto Menescal (her first boyfriend), Carlos Lyra, Sylvinha Telles, Sergio Mendes, Ronaldo Boscoli and Joao Gilberto. Sometimes even Vinicius de Moraes and Tom Jobim would show up at the gatherings. The window view of her living-room was the dazzling beach of Copacabana, which was an inspiration for the musicians. They used to play music and create new songs at Nara's house all night long.

Nara was very shy, but always ahead of the other girls her age for the way she was raised by her family (with much more freedom) and also for her favorite hobbies, which included playing the acoustic guitar and listening to jazz. Nara's parents didn't mind having her friends over to play music through the night.

Nara Leao was adored and admired by everyone. To give you an example, the lyrics of "Lobo bobo" (Silly Wolf) were written to her by her second boyfriend Ronaldo Boscoli. Even well-known Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade wrote her a manifest when the dictatorship threatened to arrest her because she had shown disfavor about the military government. Nara has also shared the stage with marvelous Vinicius de Moraes.

But I'm not going to make you read anymore... Do watch the video below, though. It's Nara Leao speaking of Bossa Nova with her very own words and singing "Insensatez" (the original version of "How Insensitive").