BIOGRAPHY
Mônica Salmaso has been establishing her career as a relevant MPB singer over the years. Since she started singing professionally in 1989, playing Verônica in Gabriel Vilela’s play “O concílio do amor”, Salmaso has been performing with and recording songs by artists like Paulo Bellinati, Edu Lobo, Chico Buarque, Dori Caymmi, Guinga, etc.
In 1995 she was invited to record Canções de Ninar and Canções de Brincar (Paulo Tatit/Sandra Peres), both Sharp Awards winners in 1995 and 1997 as Best Children ‘s CDs. In 1995, she was the main soloist in Notícias Dum Brasil (Eduardo Gudin) and recorded her first professional album, Afro-Sambas with Paulo Bellinati (guitar), including the complete collection of the Baden Powell/Vinicius de Moraes’s most important production, The Afro-Sambas.
In 1997, Salmaso was nominated for the Sharp Awards as the “The Most Promising MPB Singer”. In 1998 she recorded her second solo album, “Trampolim” and joined the Orquestra Popular de Câmara whom she recorded a CD and performed abroad with.
In 1999 she won the Visa MPB Awards – Vocal Edition and recorded her third album, “Voadeira”, which gave her the APCA Award as the Best Singer of the Year and had the most important critics, appointing the album as The Best Feminine Solo Album of the year.
2004 was the year she recorded her fourth album, Iaiá, which she recorded her version for Tom Zé’s “Menina, amanhã de manhã“, a huge hit. In 2007 she recorded “Noites de gala, samba na rua”, a collection of Chico Buarque’s songs together with Grupo Pau Brasil and went on tour in Brazil and a few countries in Europe. This record was nominated to the Grammy Latino Awards as “The Best MPB Album”.
In 2011 she recorded “Alma Lírica Brasileira”, also nominated to the Grammy Latino Awards that year. Salmaso won the 23rd Brazilian Music Award as “The Best MPB Singer” as well. “Corpo de Baile”, album she recorded in 2014 with original songs by Paulo César Pinheiro and Guinga, gave her the 26th Brazilian Music Award in 2015 as “The Best MPB Singer”. The song “Sedutora” also won as the “Best Pop/rock/reggae/hiphop/funk song”.
From 2017 until 2019 she recorded the albums Caipira (2017), Estrada Branca (2017) and Japan tour 2019, which was released in 2022.
During the pandemic, Salmaso’s project “Ô de Casas”, homemade videos of duets with artists like Chico Buarque and Dori Caymmi, was a huge hit in the social media.
Also in 2022 she recorded “Canto Sedutor” together with Dori Caymmi and “Milton” along with André Mehmari (piano) in order to celebrate Milton Nascimento ‘s 80th birthday. Then, she was invited to be part of “Que tal um samba?” tour together with Chico Buarque. They went on tour to 11 Brazilian and 2 Portuguese cities.
Salmaso’s new concert’s opening night is going to be in September 2023 in São Paulo (her hometown), which she sings in order to be back at her home after the pandemic.
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… she has the best voice I have ever heard in recent years.
… warm and profound voice, secure in all ranges. She is one of the outstanding vocalists of the nineties. Watch out for this wonderful voice.
When I listened to Mônica Salmaso for the first time, I was immediately fascinated with her precise and powerful voice, which ranges from low to high with beautiful colors, uniquely her own. Her intonation is naturally perfect, always complimenting her musical interpretations.
Salmaso comes from a theatrical background and her various recording projects seem to indicate that she’s more of a neo-traditionalist singer than anything else. Her voice is a fluent and beautifully colored instrument.
She is the most pure singer in Brazil today.(…) Listen to the tonal pattern of her vocal, and you’ll realize she is the most intriguing instrumental soloist on this tune.
Salmaso does have an exquisite instrument, a stimulating, acutely precise natural voice with a wide range and huge timbric palette that emits effortlessly. Her vocal style has been admired for its purity of tone, perfect intonation, instrumental concept, and highly refined sense of harmonic climax by some of the most important names in Brazilian music.
Salmaso’s voice is one of the most attractive to arrive from Brazil in recent memory. But beyond her wide vocal range and warm, velvety timbre, she also worked within musical settings that were filled with subtle creative aspects. (…) She is an artist to be watched, one with extraordinary potential.
Monica Salmaso has a gorgeous, quintessentially Brazilian voice: quietly lustrous and sustained, suffusing each liquid note with languid secrets.
Monica Salmaso’s ‘Trampolim’ (Blue Jackel) is pensive pop as only Brazilians can make it. Her breathy, melting voice is set against just a handful of instruments at a time, making the melodies seem even more cherished.
A longtime champion of Brazil’s rich musical culture, Salmaso has garnered rave reviews from those lucky enough to catch one of her infrequent U.S. gigs. Her latest solo CD captures the passion, elegance, and feel of her best live shows.