Singer Elza Soares, one of Brazil’s most beloved music icons, died Thursday in her Rio de Janeiro home, her family announced on social media. She was 91 and died of natural causes.
Soares was born to a poor family in June 1930 in a Rio de Janeiro slum. Her father, a factory worker, forced her to marry a man 10 years her senior when she was just 12 years old. Her first of eight children was born a year later.
In 1953, she launched her musical career hoping to make more money to support her family by participating in a talent competition at a local radio station. By the early ‘60s, she became popular across Brazil singing samba.
