Clara Francisca Gonçalves Pinheiro (August 12, 1942, Caetanópolis, Minas Ge… Read Full Bio ↴Clara Francisca Gonçalves Pinheiro (August 12, 1942, Caetanópolis, Minas Gerais, Brazil — April 2, 1983, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), best known as Clara Nunes, was one of the biggest female Brazilian singers and performers of samba music and MPB.

A researcher of Brazilian popular music, its rhythms and folklore, she has also traveled to many countries representing the Brazilian culture. A connoisseur of African music, dance, traditions, and religions, she converted to Candomblé and took Afro-Brazilian culture into her songs and costumes. She was one of the singers who recorded the most songs by the composers of Portela, her favorite samba school. She was also the first female Brazilian singer to sell more than one hundred thousand records, breaking a taboo according to which women did not sell records in Brazil. During her whole career she sold four million four hundred thousand records. She was considered by Rolling Stone magazine as the ninth greatest Brazilian voice and, by the same magazine, the fifty-first greatest Brazilian artist of all time.

On April 2, 1983, she died at age 40, after suffering from anaphylaxis during a surgery to treat varicose veins. Even today she remains one of the most popular singers in Brazil.