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Artist
Elizabeth Santos Leal de Carvalho (May 5, 1946, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — April 30, 2019, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), best known as Beth Carvalho, was a Brazilian singer, musician and songwriter, being regarded as one of the biggest interpreters of samba and pagode music, receiving the title of "Madrinha do Samba" (Godmother of Samba). Carvalho was raised in a middle-class family in Rio de Janeiro's South Zone. Her father, João Francisco Leal de Carvalho, was a lawyer. She grew up influenced by different types of music. Her father used to take her to samba school rehearsals, and her mother was a lover of classical music who encouraged her to become a ballerina. She started playing the guitar as a teenager, and got involved with the emerging Bossa Nova movement, winning a nationwide song contest on TV at the age of 19. Her first record was 1968's "Andança", carrying the song of the same name to victory in a larger festival, which brought her to prominence. Although she started her career with Bossa Nova, that was an ephemeral phase which lasted less than one year. Beth started dedicating herself entirely to samba just as her fame began, working with legendary composers such as Nelson Sargento. Carvalho is a very important artist in the history of samba, as she has celebrated and brought the spotlight to the work of legendary composers such as Cartola, Nelson Cavaquinho & Guilherme de Brito when they weren't receiving the attention they deserved. Almost all of her records have so