Dona Onete

Dona Onete was born in 1937 in Igarapé-Miri, a village in Pará, Brazil. She grew up hearing the traditional music of the Amazon region, which would later shape her own sound. She didn't release her first album until 2000, when she was already in her sixties. That self-titled debut introduced her voice to listeners outside her home region.

Her music draws from Amazonian rhythms like carimbó, which you can hear in songs like 'Carimbó Chamegado' and 'Banzeiro.' She's known for tracks such as 'No Meio do Pitiú' and 'Boto Namorador,' which carry the feel of the place she comes from without sounding like museum pieces. She worked with musicians like guitarist Yamandu Costa and had a band called Os Bandolins.

Onete kept recording as she got older, putting out albums like 'Boto Tucuxi' in 2008 and another called 'Banzeiro' in 2019. Her singing has a direct, unpolished quality that fits the stories in her songs, many of which touch on local folklore and everyday life in the Amazon.