Chiquinha Gonzaga

The most important feminine figure of Brazilian popular music of all time, Chiquinha Gonzaga was an independent woman in times of extreme prejudice and earned her money with her own music. The first Brazilian female conductor, the first composer of the marcha carnavalesca genre (with "Ô Abre Alas"), she was also very active in the abolitionist and republican campaigns. Her songs had enormous success, yielding an international career and songs still commonly used. The illegitimate child of field marshal José Basileu Neves Gonzaga and Rosa Maria de Lima, she began her musical ...