Ivete Sangalo

Brazilian axé music star Ivete Sangalo began her career with the second incarnation of Bahian group Banda Eva before striking out as a solo artist at the end of the 1990s.

She was born in Juazeiro, Bahia in 1972. Her music career began with her singing in bars, but by 1993 she had been plucked from obscurity to front the freshly rebooted axé group Banda Eva. Their eponymous debut album produced the carnival hit 'Adeus Bye Bye', and Sangalo continued with the band to record 'Pra Abalar' (1994), 'Hora H' (1995), 'Beleza Rara' (1996), 'Banda Eva ao Vivo' (1997) and 'Eva, Você e Eu' (1998).

Despite the band's success, Sangalo left to pursue a career without the group in the late 1990s. In 1999 she made her self-titled debut, a smash hit that went double platinum and earned the singer a nomination at the Latin Grammys.

She went on to record 'Beat Beleza' (2000), 'Festa' (2001), 'Clube Carnavalesco Inocentes em Progresso' (2003), 'MTV ao Vivo' (2004), 'As Super Novas' (2005), 'Multishow ao Vivo' (2007), 'Veveta e Saulinho - A Casa Amarela' (2008), 'Pode Entrar: Multishow Registro' (2009) and 'Sangalo Ao Vivo No Madison Square Garden'. 'MTV ao Vivo', in particular, was a massive hit, generating sales of two million copies and winning Sangalo a Latin Grammy for Best Brazilian Roots/Regional Album. In 2019 she released a further live album, 'Ao Vivo Em Sao Paulo'.