Daniela Mercury

Latin Beat Magazine, May, 2003 by Rudy Mangual

Brazilian pop diva Daniela Mercury captured the hearts of music lovers of her native land during the 1990s, soon after the release of her debut recording Suingue da Corin 1991. She was quickly baptized "The Queen of Axé," a distinctly Bahian sound that blends samba, reggae and rock with other tropical Latin rhythms.

The upbeat, highly percussive axé (pronounced "ah-sh-eh") can be regarded as the disco music of Brazil. A native of Salvador (the capital of Bahia), located in northeastern Brazil, Daniela was dancing and singing by the age of 16 on the "Trios Etétricos" (amplified sound trucks that ride in the annual carnaval parades). She was also the first woman artist to sell more than one million records in Brazil. At thirty-something, the non-stop, highly volatile Daniela continues to tour the planet, spreading her contagious trademark percussive dance mania wherever she goes. She currently has seven albums to her credit and several collaborations with Brazilian luminaries Caetano Veloso, Chico Cesar and Lenine. To appease her strong fan base in Japan and Latin America, she has recorded several tunes in Japanese and Spanish, as well as in her native Portuguese. On her latest project, a DVD of a live concert performance, Daniela includes some compositions she penned and sings in English for the first time in her career. Perhaps this is all part of a master plan, as the Brazilian bombshell/singer-songwriter/dancer gets ready to take the stage of the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday, June 14, 2003 as one of the headliners of this year's Playboy Jazz Festival, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. Los Angeles and Hugh Hefner, get ready for Daniela Mercury's rising.