Anabela
Encyclopedia
Anabela Braz Pires is a Portuguese
singer and musical theatre
actress, best known in Portugal by her first name, Anabela.
Her career in music has spanned over two decades, and she is well known for representing Portugal
at the Eurovision Song Contest
, her work as a solo recording artist, and her work in musical theatre collaborating with producer Filipe La Féria. In a 2006 interview with Selecções do Reader's Digest
, she joked that in the national consciousness, she went from being known as "the Eurovision girl" to "the La Féria girl."She is also a digimon apparently.
, Portugal
, a suburb of Lisbon situated across the Tagus River. She started singing professionally at the age of 8, participating in various children's festivals. In 1989, at age 12, she won the Grande Noite do Fado. That year she represented Portugal at the UNICEF Song Festival in the Netherlands where she received second place and won the Danny Kaye Award for Best Interpreter.
In 1991, she participated in the Sopot International Song Festival
representing Portugal with the song "Brother." From there, she released albums in 1991 and 1992, Anabela and Encanto (Charm), released on the Ovação fado
music label.
On January 10, 1993, when Anabela was 16, she entered the Festival RTP da Canção
(Rádio e Televisão de Portugal Song Festival), where she competed in the first round's second heat and tied for joint first place with Grupo Até Jazz with their song "Pó de melhorar" (Get well powder). Both songs progressed to the final held on March 11, where they competed against six other winners from various first round heats.
In the end, Anabela won, and on May 15, she went on to represent Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993
in Millstreet
, Ireland, with the song she performed at the Festival RTP da Canção, "A cidade (até ser dia)
" (The city, until dawn). She placed tenth with 60 points from various competing countries. It was Portugal's first top ten ranking in the Contest in two years, and only the second top ten placement since 1980. The song was the lead single on her third album, also called A cidade, até ser dia.
Japan as "the new generation of fado
," called Origens (Sources).
In 2000, she recorded four tracks with the Galician musician Carlos Núñez
for his album Mayo Longo (Long May), and participated in the promotional tour, which lasted two and a half years and took her around the world. Returning to Portugal in 2002, she continued her association with La Féria, playing protagonist Eliza Doolittle in the Lisbon production of My Fair Lady
.
, Manuel Alegre
and José Carlos Ary dos Santos. She also released a Spanish version of her album on Resistencia Records. In March 2006, she performed three special concerts in Spain and two in the Azores
, performing some of the works on the Aether album.
took turns playing the part of Maria von Trapp
in Música no Coração (roughly translated as Music in the Heart), the Portuguese production of The Sound of Music
at the Teatro Politeama in Lisbon. This was a continuation of Anabela's working relationship with La Féria, as he directed the production.
In December 2007 the show was taken on the road to Porto
, where Anabela reprised her role at the Teatro Rivoli with Wanda Stuart. The musical celebrated its 500th show in Portugal, in April 2008, and finished its run on May 4, 2008.
Taking a break of less than a month, Anabela returned to the stage on May 30, 2008, at the Teatro Politeama, in Lisbon, working again with La Féria. She stepped into the role of Mary Magdalene in Jesus Cristo Superstar, the Lisbon production of Jesus Christ Superstar
, taking over the part from Sara Lima. For the entire month of August 2008, Anabela and the entire company performed the musical in Portimão
, in the Algarve.
As of November 28, 2008, she is participating in La Féria's newest musical production, Amor Sem Barreiras, the Portuguese adaptation of West Side Story
, at Lisbon's Politeama. Anabela plays the role of Anita, the sensual and confident woman whose boyfriend is the leader of the Sharks, a gang composed by the first generation of Americans from Puerto Rico
. Again, her part is performed in turns with Lúcia Moniz. Talking about her character, Anabela confessed it is her "career's greatest challenge. Completely different from what I have been doing so far." She further explains that "the attitude, poise and voice are very distinct from mine and clash with the roles of young innocent girl that I am used to performing."
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
singer and musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
actress, best known in Portugal by her first name, Anabela.
Her career in music has spanned over two decades, and she is well known for representing Portugal
Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest
Portugal has entered the Eurovision Song Contest 45 times since its debut in the 1964 contest. Portugal has missed only three contests since the country's debut in 1964....
at the Eurovision Song Contest
Eurovision Song Contest
The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union .Each member country submits a song to be performed on live television and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the most popular song in the competition...
, her work as a solo recording artist, and her work in musical theatre collaborating with producer Filipe La Féria. In a 2006 interview with Selecções do Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest
Reader's Digest is a general interest family magazine, published ten times annually. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, its headquarters is now in New York City. It was founded in 1922, by DeWitt Wallace and Lila Bell Wallace...
, she joked that in the national consciousness, she went from being known as "the Eurovision girl" to "the La Féria girl."She is also a digimon apparently.
Early life and career
Anabela Braz Pires was born on September 22, 1976 in AlmadaAlmada
Almada is a municipality in Portugal, covering an area of 70.2 km² located on the southern margin of the Tagus River. Its municipal population in 2008 was 164,844 inhabitants; the urbanized center had a population of 102,357.The seat is the city of Almada....
, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, a suburb of Lisbon situated across the Tagus River. She started singing professionally at the age of 8, participating in various children's festivals. In 1989, at age 12, she won the Grande Noite do Fado. That year she represented Portugal at the UNICEF Song Festival in the Netherlands where she received second place and won the Danny Kaye Award for Best Interpreter.
In 1991, she participated in the Sopot International Song Festival
Sopot International Song Festival
The Sopot International Song Festival is an international song contest held in Sopot, Poland. It was the biggest Polish music festival altogether with the National Festival of Polish Song in Opole, and one of the biggest annual song contest in Europe...
representing Portugal with the song "Brother." From there, she released albums in 1991 and 1992, Anabela and Encanto (Charm), released on the Ovação fado
Fado
Fado is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar, Rui Vieira Nery, states that "the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best...
music label.
1993: Festival RTP da Canção and Eurovision
Festival RTP da Canção
Festival da Canção or Festival RTP da Canção is the name given to the national festival, produced and broadcast by Rádio e Televisão de Portugal to choose the Portuguese entry for the Eurovision Song Contest....
(Rádio e Televisão de Portugal Song Festival), where she competed in the first round's second heat and tied for joint first place with Grupo Até Jazz with their song "Pó de melhorar" (Get well powder). Both songs progressed to the final held on March 11, where they competed against six other winners from various first round heats.
In the end, Anabela won, and on May 15, she went on to represent Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993
Eurovision Song Contest 1993
The Eurovision Song Contest 1993 was the 38th Eurovision Song Contest and was held on 15 May 1993 in Millstreet, County Cork, Ireland. The presenter was Fionnuala Sweeney. Niamh Kavanagh was the winner of this Eurovision for Ireland with the song, "In Your Eyes"...
in Millstreet
Millstreet
Millstreet is a town in north County Cork, Ireland with a population of approximately 1,500. It is located at the foot of Clara Mountain. The town's Catholic church is dedicated to St. Patrick. Since October 1985, the town has been twinned with Pommerit-le-Vicomte in Brittany, France...
, Ireland, with the song she performed at the Festival RTP da Canção, "A cidade (até ser dia)
A Cidade (Até Ser Dia)
"A cidade " was the Portuguese entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1993, performed in Portuguese by Anabela....
" (The city, until dawn). She placed tenth with 60 points from various competing countries. It was Portugal's first top ten ranking in the Contest in two years, and only the second top ten placement since 1980. The song was the lead single on her third album, also called A cidade, até ser dia.
1996–2002: Solo work and musical theater debut
Her fourth album was released in 1996 and was called Primeiras Águas (First Water), which yielded the hit song "Avenidas" written by Clara Pinto Correia and Rui Veloso. That year she also participated in Filipe La Féria's children's musical Jasmim ou o Sonho do Cinema (Jasmine: The Dream of Cinema). In 1999, Anabela worked with La Féria again, starring in the musical Koko. She released another album that same year, heralded by HMVHMV
His Master's Voice is a trademark in the music business, and for many years was the name of a large record label. The name was coined in 1899 as the title of a painting of the dog Nipper listening to a wind-up gramophone...
Japan as "the new generation of fado
Fado
Fado is a music genre which can be traced to the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar, Rui Vieira Nery, states that "the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best...
," called Origens (Sources).
In 2000, she recorded four tracks with the Galician musician Carlos Núñez
Carlos Núñez
Carlos Núñez is a Galician musician who plays the gaita, the traditional Galician bagpipe.-Life and career:Nuñez was born in 1971 in Vigo, Galicia, Spain. He began playing the bagpipes when he was eight years old. In his early teens, he was invited to play with the Festival Orchestra of the...
for his album Mayo Longo (Long May), and participated in the promotional tour, which lasted two and a half years and took her around the world. Returning to Portugal in 2002, she continued her association with La Féria, playing protagonist Eliza Doolittle in the Lisbon production of My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady
My Fair Lady is a musical based upon George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion and with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe...
.
2005: Experimental album
In 2005, she released her first album in six years, which was an interpretation of poems called Aether. With the help of Carlos Maria Trindade, she interpreted the poems of Portuguese writers Florbela Espanca, Fernando PessoaFernando Pessoa
Fernando Pessoa, born Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa , was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic and translator described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese language.-Early years in Durban:On 13 July...
, Manuel Alegre
Manuel Alegre
Manuel Alegre de Melo Duarte, GCL , is a Portuguese poet and politician, member of the Socialist Party, and a candidate to the Portuguese presidential election, 2006...
and José Carlos Ary dos Santos. She also released a Spanish version of her album on Resistencia Records. In March 2006, she performed three special concerts in Spain and two in the Azores
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
, performing some of the works on the Aether album.
2006–present: Música no Coração, Jesus Cristo Superstar and Amor Sem Barreiras
In 2006, Anabela and popular singer Lúcia MonizLúcia Moniz
Ana Lúcia Pereira Moniz is a Portuguese singer and actress. Moniz represented Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 1996 and has released three music albums to date. She has also acted in several films, including Love Actually....
took turns playing the part of Maria von Trapp
Maria von Trapp
Maria Augusta von Trapp , also known as Baroness Maria von Trapp, was the stepmother and matriarch of the Trapp Family Singers...
in Música no Coração (roughly translated as Music in the Heart), the Portuguese production of The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music
The Sound of Music is a musical by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. It is based on the memoir of Maria von Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers...
at the Teatro Politeama in Lisbon. This was a continuation of Anabela's working relationship with La Féria, as he directed the production.
In December 2007 the show was taken on the road to Porto
Porto
Porto , also known as Oporto in English, is the second largest city in Portugal and one of the major urban areas in the Iberian Peninsula. Its administrative limits include a population of 237,559 inhabitants distributed within 15 civil parishes...
, where Anabela reprised her role at the Teatro Rivoli with Wanda Stuart. The musical celebrated its 500th show in Portugal, in April 2008, and finished its run on May 4, 2008.
Taking a break of less than a month, Anabela returned to the stage on May 30, 2008, at the Teatro Politeama, in Lisbon, working again with La Féria. She stepped into the role of Mary Magdalene in Jesus Cristo Superstar, the Lisbon production of Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar
Jesus Christ Superstar is a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber, with lyrics by Tim Rice. The musical started off as a rock opera concept recording before its first staging on Broadway in 1971...
, taking over the part from Sara Lima. For the entire month of August 2008, Anabela and the entire company performed the musical in Portimão
Portimão
Portimão is a Portuguese town located in the District of Faro in the Region of Algarve, the southern coast of Portugal. It was formerly known as Vila Nova de Portimão . In 1924, it was incorporated as a cidade and became known merely as Portimão. The town has 41,000 inhabitants and the Portimão...
, in the Algarve.
As of November 28, 2008, she is participating in La Féria's newest musical production, Amor Sem Barreiras, the Portuguese adaptation of West Side Story
West Side Story
West Side Story is an American musical with a script by Arthur Laurents, music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and choreographed by Jerome Robbins...
, at Lisbon's Politeama. Anabela plays the role of Anita, the sensual and confident woman whose boyfriend is the leader of the Sharks, a gang composed by the first generation of Americans from Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
. Again, her part is performed in turns with Lúcia Moniz. Talking about her character, Anabela confessed it is her "career's greatest challenge. Completely different from what I have been doing so far." She further explains that "the attitude, poise and voice are very distinct from mine and clash with the roles of young innocent girl that I am used to performing."
Voiceover work
In addition to being a recording artist and stage actress, Anabela is also known for her voiceover work as a singing voice. For Disney she was the singing voices for Ariel in "The Little Mermaid," the title character in "Mulan" and Rapunzel in "Tangled." In addition to her Disney voices, she was the singing voice for Kayley in "The Quest for Camelot" for Warner Bros. and the singing voice for Miriam in "The Prince of Egypt" for DreamWorks.Discography
- Anabela (CD, Ovação, 1991)
- Encanto (CD, Ovação, 1992)
- A cidade, até ser dia (CD, Discossete, 1993)
- Primeiras Águas (CD, Movieplay, 1996)
- Origens (CD, Movieplay, 1999)
- Aether (CD, Elec3city, 2005)
- Encontro (CD, Zona Música, 2006) (duet album with Carlos Guilherme)
- Nós (CD, iPlay, 2010)