Virginia Rodrigues - Mares Profundos

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Dubbed the "new voice of Brazilian music" by The New York Times, Virginia Rodrigues burst upon the international scene in 1997 with her stunningly evocative voice. Discovered by Brazilian music legend Caetano Veloso, Rodrigues has already released two critically acclaimed albums and regularly appears at concerts and festivals around the world. On October 14, Rodrigues will release Mares Profundos, her third album and first on Deutsche Grammophon’s new eDGe Music imprint. She returns to the US with a tour in October/November to support her new album, which is eagerly anticipated by World Music fans and critics alike.


On Mares Profundos, Virgínia Rodrigues, along with her mentor Caetano Veloso and producer/guitarist Luiz Brasil, presents a fascinating look at Afro-Bahian music and culture. Her new album is devoted to the "Afro Sambas", a legendary collection of songs written by Vinicius de Moraes and Baden Powell. De Moraes, the author of the lyrics of most great songs of bossa nova, such as Girl From Ipanema and the film music of Orfeo Negro, wrote a series of sambas which pay a tribute to the African culture of Bahia.


Rodrigues, who is proud of her Afro-Bahian and African roots and a fierce critic of Brazil’s camouflaged racism, approaches these Afro-sambas in her own way and with enormous sensitivity. For almost twenty years she has been an initiated member of the polytheist Afro-Bahian candomblé cult. A determined person, she is a daughter of Ogum, the god of war and iron, and therefore prepared (even more than Vinícius de Moraes and Baden Powell, who needed to do field research in Bahia before writing their Afro-sambas) to breathe new life into songs such as “Canto de Iemanjá”, “Canto de Ossanha”, and “Canto de Xangô” which deal with candomblé divinities and ceremonies.

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