About Clara Nunes Clara Francisca Nunes Pinheiro, best known simply as Clara Nunes, (Caetanópolis - August 12, 1943; Rio de Janeiro - April 2, 1983) was a Brazilian samba singer, considered one of the greatest interpreters of her country. Researcher of Brazilian popular music, rhythms and folklore, she also traveled several times to Africa. Knowledgeable of dances and traditions African-Brazilian, she has become the Umbanda. Clara Nunes was one of the singers that more serious composers of the songs Portela, her favorite samba school. It was the first Brazilian female singer to sell over 100 thousand copies, dropping a taboo according to which women are not selling disc. She remains one of the most popular and beloved musicians in Brazil.Clara was a factory worker when she decided to compete in a music contest, being placed third at the finals held in São Paulo in 1959. She got a day-job at a radio station in Belo Horizonte and sang in nightclubs. In 1965, Clara moved to Rio de Janeiro, recording a mix of boleros and samba songs on her first album. After a few LPs featuring assorted styles, she signed her name as a samba vocalist in the 1970s and became best-known. In 1974, Clara had a hit with the samba "Conto de Areia" and her album sold approximately 300 thousand copies. It was a remarkable number, then, helping put down the common knowledge that women weren’t big record sellers and stimulating the companies to invest in other female samba musicians, like Alcione and Beth Carvalho. In 1975, she toured Europe. The following albums transformed her into one of the "three samba queens" of her time, along with the two above-mentioned musicians. On the second half of the decade, she would release one album every year, all of them selling well and featuring historic tracks like "Juízo Final", "Coração Leviano" and "Morena de Angola". Other hits of her career were "Você Passa e Eu Acho Graça", "Ê Baiana", "Ilu Ayê - Terra da Vida", "Tristeza, Pé no Chão", "A Deusa dos Orixás", "Macunaíma", "O Mar Serenou", "As Forças da Natureza", "Guerreira", "Feira de Mangaio", "Portela na Avenida" and "Nação". Clara was also famous for songs crafted upon the rhythms of Umbanda, her African-Brazilian religion, and for her typical costumes, as she always dressed in white and wore lots of necklaces and African beads. After a mal-succeeded surgery to correct varicose veins, Clara died prematurely in April 1983, causing popular commotion.