Juliana Amaral

POETRY HIGHLIGHTS JULIANA AMARAL'S SECOND ALBUM

Showing the poetry that comes from the music and the lyrics of a song. To achieve this goal, the singer, composer and actress Juliana Amaral chose, carefully, the twelve tracks from her second solo album "Juliana Samba". She was born in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo and grew up in Mogi das Cruzes, both cities belong to what is called Great São Paulo. On the road since she was 19, only now she releases her second album. The ones who had already listened to her singing, fond strange the delay to release a new album, after "Águas Daqui", 2002. The explanation? At the age of 17, she already took part in theatrical plays in her city and, at the age of 19, she already sang professionally. She has always been critical and meticulous and only now, after 15 years of career she felt ready to release her second álbum, in a daring way.

"Juliana Samba" brings her favorite kind of music. Many other respected singers
released albums for the same market recently: Tereza Cristina, Maria Rita, Roberta Sá e Marisa Monte. Had any possibility of taking risks been considered? No. That's how she is. Fearless and focused, she sings samba, since the beginning of her career and she didn't feel intimidated and kept her original proposal and also counted on a very strong allied: Moacyr Luz, who produces the album. They chose carefully all the tracks that compose the repertory. The starting point was to pick in most of the compositions something that was connected to Juliana's voice, to her way of singing and also to her conception of samba. A sweet melancholy.

"I sing the Brazilian song. My relationship with the word is deep and painful, because of my theatrical formation and also because I've always been in love with the words, that are like people for me. I sing because I have the need to say. I'm a singer who works for the song, who works for what people want to say with the lyrics mixed with the music, blended in such a different way, that they can go far beyond."

In "Juliana Samba" the singer finds herself working for this. The strong relation with the poetry and with the word ends in a rhythmic characteristic of her interpretations. " That's why I know how to "divide" well, which makes everything much easier when I sing a samba. But, singing a samba for me, goes even further. Singing a samba is more than singing. It's devotion and passion. Moacyr Luz says my voice has the sadness of the samba and the tenderness that is the opposite of that, so, at the same time they complement each other. That's samba: it's crying of happiness, it's smiling of nostalgia, within the melody."

Right in the beginning the album shows us this sadness. It's an old composition by Cartola  and Zé Com Fome, "Meu Amor Já foi Embora" (My love has gone away). After it, more sadnesses, love pains and new beginnings in Wilson Baptista, Paulinho da Viola, Heitor ods Prazeres, Martinho da Vila and Marcelo Camelo's compositions. Moacyr Luz, the producer is also one of the composers in the album in a partnership with Hermínio Bello de Carvalho. As a producer he managed to avoid the very old formula of recording an album full of classical songs to avoid risks and get a faster answer back.

And, It was exactly this way he ended up giving to this work an identity. "Juliana
samba" says to the listeners what Juliana would like to say.

"This album shows me well, it's very me, my way of singing. I don't know how to pretend to be who I am not. I only know how to be entirely myself. I'm a real singer. I have a consistent artistic work. I have what to say and I want to say it."

THE BEGINNING

Juliana Amaral was born in São Bernando do Campo, was raised in Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo and moved to São Paulo, the capital when she was 14, to finish High School. The connection with the music started very early.

"My father always sang to me to make me fall asleep. I remember him singing Lupicínio Rodrigues. I have always been in love with music. I listened to it and sang since I was a little girl.

At the age of 15, she decided to study singing. At 17, she was took theatre classes and two years later she already sang professionally. Since then, she has never stopped singing. She studied harmony, perception, improvisation, she also taught singing and graduated in Languages by USP (São Paulo University). In 2002, she released her first solo album "Águas daqui". Since 2003, she has been working with the gafieira orchestra"Cometa Gafi". She also participated of the music Center "Companhia do Latão" and nowadays she develops a work with the "Cientist Center", a musical and theatrical group.