Rosinha de Valença: Brazil’s overlooked bossa nova guitar hero
Brazil has produced a wealth of the world’s most important and inventive artists over the years. From the pioneering bossa nova of Edu Lobo to the continued genius of Seu Jorge, the South American nation has always fostered a vibrant and inventive music scene which had captured the imaginations of countless budding musicians. Nevertheless, some of Brazil’s greatest exports were never afforded the praise they so richly deserved, as in the case of guitarist and bossa nova devotee Rosinha de Valença.
Born Maria Rosa Canelas in 1941, the Brazilian became entranced by the music around her during childhood. Regularly glued to the radio, hearing all the latest music to emerge from Rio de Janeiro, she had a natural affinity with the sounds of acoustic guitar. After seeing her brother play the instrument, Canelas decided that she, too, would devote herself to mastering the six-string. So, wasting no time at all, she began to play along to the songs she heard on the radio, and by the age of 12, a young Canelas was performing in bars and restaurants across her hometown of Valença.
Despite her clear devotion to music and the passion she played, Canelas’ parents did not support her artistic ambitions. What’s more, audiences were wary of her, meaning she garnered very little mainstream attention. At that time, Brazil was a very conservative nation, with sexism and gender roles prevalent in virtually all aspects of society. Music, particularly guitar playing, was seen as an exclusively male activity, and there was no place for a young woman like Canelas.
Nevertheless, she persisted. Relocating to the heart of Rio de Janeiro in 1963, during her early 20s, Canelas abandoned studying in order to pursue music full-time. It was during this period that she was given the stage name Rosinha de Valença by a local journalist, echoing the idea that she performed, not just for herself but for all of her hometown, too.
For the uninitiated, Rio during the early 1960s was an incredibly creative place to be. In contrast to the increased political turmoil in Brazil’s government, musicians and artists across the city began to explore new avenues of expression. Bossa nova, for instance, paid homage to the musical traditions of the country, while modernising its sound for an entirely new generation. Although Canelas’ music fit right in with the sounds and conventions of the bossa nova age, she was roundly ignored by mainstream audiences in Brazil.
Although she continued to write, perform, and release material in the face of this ignorance to her work, Canelas’ big break came in 1964 when she was plucked from Rio to perform alongside Sérgio Mendes and Brasil ’65 during a tour of the United States. Mendes was among Brazil’s most popular artists at the time, and he was largely responsible for introducing the sounds of bossa nova to global audiences, so this opportunity gave Canelas an incredible opportunity to share her work with the world.
The next few decades would see Rosinha de Valença perform all around the world, both in a solo capacity and collaborating with figures like Sarah Vaughan and even the composer Henry Mancini. Ultimately, though, her incredible bossa nova guitar compositions were never held in the same light as other pioneers of the genre. Largely as a result of her gender, she has been repeatedly overlooked in the history of bossa nova and Brazilian music as a whole.
Maria Rosa Canelas retired from music during the 1990s following a heart attack, which left her with brain damage. She eventually passed away in 2004 after over a decade in a vegetative state. In the years since her tragic death, much of her material has been reappraised and rightly hailed for its innovative, groundbreaking quality within the lineage of bossa nova and MPB music. Throughout her life, she was ignored, discriminated against, or cast into the shadows, but Rosinha de Valença still goes down in history as one of the most skilled and important guitarists to ever grace the airwaves of Brazil.
