Daniela Mercury

Revolution and reinvention are in Daniela Mercury’s blood. At sixteen she began performing in bars in Salvador da Bahia and discovered that her calling in life was music. Her passion for Bahian Carnaval led to the ultimate challenge of singing in a trio elétrico. Mercury took to the rolling, amplified bandstand that lumbers down the avenue among Carnaval revelers at a time in which only men sang in blocos. Since then the festa barroca has become her milieu of choice for redefining her artistry. A performer of exceptional magnetism who emphasizes creativity, responsibility, and social commitment, excellence and originality in her work, Mercury comfortably navigates musical diversity with the infectious energy and joy of being a Baiana. Her tours and concerts around the world have transformed her into an ambassador for Brazilian music. She sold more than 10 million albums wordwide and is one of the best selling female artists in Brazil.

Career

Daniela Mercury formed the pop group Companhia Clic and recorded her first two albums. Pega que Oh! and Ilha das Bananas became hit singles in the late 80s. Mercury’s first studio efforts paved the way for her incursion into electronic music, placing her at the forefront of what lay ahead.

Her first solo project (1991), released by independent record company Eldorado, announced the arrival of a sound that conquered Brazil. The single Swing da Cor became the most played song on Bahian airwaves. From there it rippled into the rest of the northeastern region and resonated in southern and southeastern Brazil. Today Swing da Cor is synonymous with samba-reggae, a genre rooted in the Afro-blocos of Bahia (dancing groups that act as afro-centric vehicles of racial identity) and directly influenced by the ceremonial drumming used in the African-derived religious rituals of Candomblé.


Daniela Mercury’s first live concert (1992) in São Paulo’s Museum of Art consolidated her popularity onstage. The midday performance attracted more than twenty thousand people who spilled into the avenue, interrupting the flow of traffic.

1992’s Canto da Cidade (Sony) emerged just as Brazil was experiencing the enthrallment of having discovered a new star. The single that gave the album its title became a number one hit and stayed in that position for months. The LP broke sales records, giving Mercury the distinction of being the first artist to receive a diamond record for having sold a million copies. Its success is so impressive that many years have passed since its release, yet Canto da Cidade continues to sell, having already surpassed the three million mark in Brazil and abroad. Canto da Cidade sparked a special on Rede Globo, shows throughout Europe and the United States, magazine covers, and hundreds of interviews. Its success was crowned by shows throughout Brazil boasting a record number of attendants that reached more than two million concertgoers.

Mercury’s next album, Música de Rua (1994-Sony), proved that the singer was no fleeting sensation. The record established her versatility as a composer and arranger and more frequent domestic and international tours consecrated her as a top-notch performer. Singing in Portuguese for an international audience was not a setback for Mercury. In response to the perceived language barrier she once countered: “Perhaps I’m a Brazilian artist who has less difficulty expressing what I do on an international level. While my audience may not understand what I sing they certainly feel the joy and energy coming from my music and sing along.”

Two years later, Mercury continued to delight audiences with Feijão com Arroz (1996-Sony), and won over critics for good. Given her unabated popularity with audiences, skeptics recognized the artist’s musical consistency. Feijão com Arroz explored the range of Samba music in its sundry phases, paying homage to Brazil’s musical and ethnic roots with arrangements that showcased the modern pop sensibilities present in the most traditional of rhythms. Feijão com Arroz was a landmark album in Mercury’s career, especially in the international market.

Finally in 1998 Mercury released her first live album, Elétrica (Sony), in response to the public’s overwhelming demand of having the electrifying atmosphere of her shows preserved on disc. Recorded in her stronghold, Salvador, Mercury blended the Bahian guitar typically used in the trios elétricos during Carnaval with electric rock guitar. The album’s repertoire included hits from previous records, including Swing da Cor, O Canto da Cidade, Música de Rua, Rapunzel, Nobre Vagabundo, among others, and songs she had performed live but never recorded. Additionally Mercury included five new songs on the album, four of which were either penned solely by the artist or in partnership with other songwriters.

Sol da Liberdade (2000-BMG) reaffirmed Mercury’s affinity for the samba-reggae hybrid. The single Ilê Pérola Negra registered as one of Mercury’s most beautiful renditions. The artist’s newest challenge, hailed as her best album yet, surprised fans and critics alike. Joining forces with Suba (an acclaimed producer in Brazilian electronica), Mercury mixed the drumbeats of samba-reggae with sounds extracted from electronic music (rap, funk, lounge, house), in a harmonious, if unlikely union.

Sou de Qualquer Lugar (2001-BMG) brought together prominent songwriters such as Lenine, Gilberto Gil and Carlinhos Brown and showcased a remake of Rita Lee’s Mutante and an electrifying version of the late Chico Science’s Praieira. Electronic samba-reggae frames the album for the most part, though Mercury’s most intimate and feminine side permeates throughout, from the album art to the compositions and her renditions of the songs.

Eletrodoméstico – MTV Live (2003-BMG) was recorded during a show at the Castro Alves Theater’s Concha Acústica in Salvador and released on CD and DVD. By inviting Portuguese singer Dulce Pontes, flamenco pop sensation Rosário Flores, Italian rapper Lorenzo Jovanotti, Bahian percussionist Carlinhos Brown, along with the bands Olodum, Ilê Aiyê, and Hip Hop Roots to join her onstage, the show became a high point on the multicultural scale of Mercury’s career.

In Carnaval Eletrônico (2004-BMG), Daniela invited the most important DJs and producers of electronic music in Brazil, as well as Gilberto Gil, Carlinhos Brown, and Lenine, to participate in a commemorative disc celebrating five years of her having formed TrioTechno, the first trio elétrico of electronic music to parade in Bahia’s Carnaval. The album is a fusion of a panoply of electronic musical expressions, including Drum’n Bass, House, Techno, Lounge, and Dub with Brazilian rhythms that result in original song creations. The disc subsequently received a Latin Grammy nomination for best pop album of the year and Mercury was nominated for a Tim award for best female pop/rock vocals. Internet users voted Carnaval Eletrônico the best pop album of the year online in one of Brazil’s most important weekly magazines Revista Isto É.

In 2005 Mercury released Clássica (Som Livre) on CD and DVD. Recorded from a show she gave the year before at São Paulo’s Casa de Espetáculo - Bourbon Street the album is a sampler of bossa nova, jazz, and remakes of MPB (Brazilian Popular Music) hits. The recording signaled a new phase for Mercury, who chose independence from multinational record companies to gain full control of her music.

The year 2005 also saw the release of Balé Mulato (EMI). Produced by Mercury, Ramiro Musotto, and Alê Siqueira, the album is percussive, vibrant, and contemporary. On it Mercury draws from samba-reggae, rock, frevo (a hybrid of martial polka and African rhythms played mostly during Recife Carnaval), galope eletrônico (the electronic version of a northeastern rhythm that imitates the gallop of a horse), and romantic ballads.

Baile Barroco (2006-EMI) is the first live DVD of Mercury performing in a trio elétrico during the 2005 Bahian Carnaval. The collection of songs celebrates twenty years of axé-music with quest performers Luis Caldas, Fernanda Porto, Banda Kaleidoscópio and Ramiro Musotto. A highlight that exemplified Bahian Carnaval’s history of diversity was when Mercury opened the parade with a baby grand piano set up on an ample stage. Accompanied by Ricardo Castro on piano, Mercury sang Ary Barroso’s Aquarela do Brasil, Villa Lobos’ Bachianas n.5, and some Bach, in a performance that enchanted millions of revelers at the Barra-Ondina circuit and demonstrated the singer’s boldness and inimitability.

Present

oday Mercury has sold more than ten million albums around the globe. She was the only Brazilian artist invited to participate in the recording of a DVD celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Cirque de Soleil. In 2004 she was invited to commemorate the Montreal International Jazz Fesitval’s 25th anniversary and was a special guest on Alejandro Sanz’s latest DVD, with whom she sang a duet in a bullfighting ring in Madrid. Mercury has sung with the greatest names in Brazilian music and in popular music abroad. Legends such as Tom Jobim, Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Paul McCartney and Ray Charles stand out.

The artistic vitality of Daniela Mercury’s musical trajectory is reflected in the fact that all of her albums have produced national hits and many of her songs have been included in soap opera soundtracks.

Today Mercury is the star of bloco Crocodilo, headlining the Barra-Ondina circuit, which was created as an alternative space in an area in the center of the city that was drawing large crowds during Carnaval. From the time Mercury began parading in 1996 down the Avenue the winds along the seashore, later setting up her own camarote (boxes along the parade route), the circuit became official. Today it attracts hundreds of thousands of revelers in the same way the former Seventh Avenue circuit did in the past.

The celebration of Carnaval is a backdrop to Mercury’s success on stage and in the studio. For many years she was chosen best Carnaval singer and some of her hits were named best Carnaval themed music, sang by other artists and blocos.