Dolores Duran, artistic name of Adiléia Silva da Rocha, was born in Rio de … Read Full Bio ↴Dolores Duran, artistic name of Adiléia Silva da Rocha, was born in Rio de Janeiro in June 7, 1930.
She made her public singing debut at age 10 on the radio. At age 16 she came up with the stage name Dolores Duran and became a crooner, working mainly at the 1950s nostalgic nightclubs in the Copacabana neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro.
As a singer and composer, Duran was a great exponent of the Samba-Canção samba cancao genre, which emerged in the 1930s. In addition to her, Maysa Matarazzo, Nora Ney, Dalva de Oliveira and Angela Maria stood out in this genre.
The samba-canção samba cancao genre can be compared to the bolero due to the exaltation of romantic love or the suffering caused by an unfulfilled love. Samba-canção preceded the Bossa Nova movement, which emerged at the end of the 1950s. But the latter, an amalgamation of North American jazz with samba from Rio de Janeiro, represented refinement and greater lightness in melodies and interpretations, that replaced personal drama and melancholy melodies.
Even without fluency in other languages, Dolores Duran did so well in her performances that, when attending a show at the Baccarat nightclub located at Rio’s Beco das Garrafas alley in Duvivier Street (later the birth location of Bossa Nova genre), the American singer Ella Fitzgerald declared that she had seen the best version of "My Funny Valentine ", a 1937 Richard Rodgers classic in her native United States performed by 600 artists over the years.
A Pioneer
For researcher Thiago Marques Luiz, Dolores was "the first popular composer of national projection". "Dolores Duran's music is timeless. It represents a moment of intense and creative bohemia and a style that will never be forgotten or outdated, because her songs deal with love in a delicate way, even if sometimes exaggerated or too painful".
A Percussor
Some MPB scholars claim that the songs sung and composed by Dolores Duran paved the way for Bossa Nova, due to the more intimate way in which she interpreted. However, Dolores' songs, notably romantic, were permeated by a macho tone, which only began to be broken from the 60's onwards, with new musical movements that began to emerge along with Bossa Nova, such as Tropicalismo
Biography and Career
She was born in a humble house, in a “vila” on Rua do Propósito, in the Saúde neighborhood of Downtown Rio de Janeiro (Centro), where she lived for a few years. She had a poor childhood and did not know her biological father. She grew up alongside her mother, Josepha Silva da Rocha, her stepfather, Armindo José da Rocha, and her two half-sisters, Solange and Denise. While still a child, she moved to a tenement in the Piedade neighborhood, where she was raised. Since her childhood, she liked to sing and dreamt of being famous. At the age of eight, she contracted rheumatic fever, which almost led to her death, and which left her with a very serious heart murmur.
At the age of twelve, influenced by her friends and convinced of her personal dreams, she decided, with her mother's permission, to enroll in a singing contest. Surprisingly, she sang very well, like a professional, even without having studied music, and won first prize in the program Calouros em Desfile, by Ary Barroso. The presentations on the program became frequent, establishing her artistic career. Against her mother, she left her studies to dedicate herself only to music.
Although she wanted to be a singer, it was very difficult to actually get steady singing work. Because of that, she took the only test available at the time, which was for an actress. She recorded the text and did a good scene, and beat other candidates, managing to work as an actress on Cruzeiro do Sul and Tupi radio stations, in the latter on the show "Hora do Guri".
As a teenager, the young woman still had the dream of being a professional singer. She worked at home with her mother and sisters, sewing and washing clothes for families, and on weekends she acted as an actress on the radio, until, in the late 1940s, she met a rich, influential couple from Rio’s high society: Lauro and Heloísa Paes de Andrade. Heloísa had soirées and concerts in her mansion, and noticing the young woman's beautiful voice in a music competition, invited her to perform at her home. Very moved, Adiléia accepted, and it was a great success, drawing the attention of broadcasters who attended the party, and thus, she was called to record some songs. They help her to really become a singer, taking her to chic and recognized locations, frequented by celebrities. Lauro started to call her Dolores Duran, a name certainly inspired by that of the American actress Dolores Moran, who made the cover of a magazine in Brazil at the time.
Languages
Never having studied languages, she taught herself to sing in English, French, Italian, Spanish and even Esperanto.
Ella Fitzgerald, during her visit to the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro in the 1950s went to the Baccarat nightclub in Beco das Garrafas located at an alley in Copacabana’s Duvivier Street - the location where Bossa Nova later flourished - specially to see Dolores and was delighted with the interpretation of "My Funny Valentine" - a best she had ever heard, Fitzgerald declared.
At the beginning of her pilgrimage through Rio's nightclubs in the 1950s, a journalist began to constantly praise her in his column. That journalist was Fernando Lobo, a native of Pernambuco living in Rio (a leap-sex composer) and father of musician Edu Lobo, whose column "Mesa de Pista" was published in Jornal O Globo. Another journalist, also from Pernambuco and who was also based in Rio, and who encouraged her a lot was Antônio Maria, as he wrote publications about her.
In 1952, Dolores recorded her debut album, which featured songs like "Canção da Volta" (Antonio Maria-Ismael Neto) and "Bom É Querer Bem" (Fernando Lobo). Her first composition, "Se É por Falta de Adeus", was written with Antonio Carlos Jobim and recorded by Dóris Monteiro. She wrote two other pop music classics with Jobim, "Por Causa de Você" and "Estrada de Sol". Dolores wrote also: "Fim de Caso", "Solidão", "Castigo", as well as "Pela Rua", "Ternura Antiga" and "Idéias Erradas", written with Ribamar.
Dolores toured the former Soviet Union in 1958 with other Brazilian performers, and later spent some time in Paris on her way back to South America. She recorded her greatest hit, "A Noite do Meu Bem" a few days before she died.
Personal Life
Dolores Duran began to receive several invitations to sing in the 50s Rio’s nightlife. She sang in several clubs in the most bohemian and charming neighborhood of that time: Lapa as well as Copacabana. Becoming more and more successful, the conservatism of the time began to weigh on her, when she received criticism from her family for drinking, smoking and getting home in the morning, but none of this made her give up on her dream of surviving exclusively on music.
Always dedicated, she already played the guitar, which she learned by herself, and started to sing international songs on the program "Pescando Estrelas", in which there were only young and renowned singers. There she met and became best friends with the singer of the important Rádio Guanabara and the famous Rádio Nacional, Julie Joy. Through Julie, Dolores started singing on Rádio Guanabara, and consolidated her career. She recorded her songs in radio studios in the South Zone of Rio (Zona Sul). Dolores decided it was time to be independent: she had already conquered her financial independence, now it was time to have her personal freedom. With great sadness, she said goodbye to her mother, stepfather and sisters, and left home. She and Julie rented an apartment in Copacabana, as it was closer to the radio studio, and Dolores wouldn't have to take the tram to Piedade and arrive home late. Despite this, Dolores always went to visit her family and never forgot her humble origins.
Romantic Life, Marriages and Career
In her brief life, Dolores has had many boyfriends and a turbulent romantic life. Her first boyfriend was a waiter at the Vogue nightclub, where she sang. He betrayed her and, repentant, wanted to get back together. Owner of a strong temper, she did not forgive him. After other sporadic relationships, she met and started dating the composer from Paraná Billy Blanco, with whom she had a 6-month relationship. They were very close, and Dolores recorded some of his songs as Billy wrote a prolific lyricist. Dolores also wrote some lyrics which Billy recorded. After the friendly breakup, she had other relationships until starting dating João Donato. The relationship also lasted six months. Their intention to stay together was subject to social and racial prejudice: the boy's family did not accept that he was dating a nightclub singer, who was mulatto and 4 years older than him. Despite a scheduled engagement, he ended up taking his family's advice and abandoned Dolores, going to live in Mexico. Suffering a lot from all this, she composed intense and very successful songs at that time.
Despite her romantic misfortunes, the 1950s began as a milestone for Dolores, who started to sing in the sophisticated nightclubs of the famous Hotel Glória, being invited to tour Brazil.
Dolores' debut album came out in 1952, named “Músicas para o Carnaval” (Songs for the Carnaval) recording two sambas for the following year's Carnaval: "Que Bom Será" (Alice Chaves, Salvador Miceli and Paulo Márquez) and "Já Não Importa" (Domício Costa and Roberto Faissal). In 1953, she recorded "Outono" (Billy Blanco), and "Lama" (Paulo Marquez and Alice Chaves). Two years later, came the songs "Canção da Volta" (Antônio Maria and Ismael Neto), "Bom É Querer Bem" (Fernando Lobo), "Praça Mauá" (Billy Blanco) and "Carioca" (Antônio Maria and Ismael Neto). .
In 1955, she suffered a heart attack and spent 30 days at the Miguel Couto Hospital. This happened as Dolores didn’t follow doctor’s restrictions of sleeping early, avoiding alcohol and cigarettes, and “not experiencing strong emotions”. By not following these recommendations, she ended up aggravating her heart problems as she abused cigarettes (over three packs a day) and alcoholic beverages, especially vodka and whiskey - which always accompanied her at night and sometimes during the day. She feared death, and desired to live intensely. It’s been said Dolores surrendered completely to her desires without thinking about the future.
In early hours, often unable to sleep and alone, she wrote her lyrics on the tables in bars, drinking and smoking, listening to bolero, salsa, choro and samba songs. To compose her unforgettable lyrics, she was inspired by her love affairs and her life in general, but mostly her joys and sorrows.
Marriages
In 1955 she met the singer and composer Macedo Neto at the Copacabana record label, of whom she recorded several sambas. The two struck up a friendship, and soon fell in love.
After a few months of dating, Dolores had a non-planned pregnancy. A little scared but very happy she left the apartment she shared with her friend Julie Joy to live at Macedo Neto's house. Preparing the baby's trousseau and the documents for the official marriage, Dolores, two months pregnant, had severe metrorrhagia and was hospitalized. She had suffered a miscarriage from an ectopic pregnancy, and had become sterile. This fact shook her deeply, and made her very depressed.
The couple then tried to strengthen their union, and trying to recover from this episode, Dolores and Macedo were married in a local registry office, in a small civil ceremony, and held a discreet meeting for close friends.
She took the name Adiléia Silva da Rocha Macedo. Dolores was very sad because her mother did not attend her wedding, only one of her sisters joined the ceremony. Over time, fights due to machismo and jealousy of her husband increased considerably. Later she found out that her husband forbade her mother to attend the wedding because she was black; feeling attacked by such prejudice, she filed for separation. However, after months apart, she forgave him and they were back together.
In 1956, after another year of a marriage filled with many arguments, violent fights and constant humiliation, aggressions and betrayals, Dolores opted for separation and left home. Very shaken, and suffering from insomnia, she began to mix tranquilizers with alcohol, in addition to smoking even more than before.
International Career
In reference to yet another painful separation, Dolores composed the song "Fim de Caso", recorded at 78 rpm, a resounding success, which took her tour Europe, where she sang and performed in several countries in the most prestigious clubs. There, she put together a musical ensemble, with Brazilian and European singers and composers. She performed day and night with great success. From Europe, she went to sing in Uruguay, the Soviet Union and China, in the company of her musical group. Later this musical group disbanded due to disagreement on the music genre they should perform: the group wanted her to sing rhythms that she did not want to sing. Separated from the group, Dolores started to travel alone through several countries on a tour, and then, one of her biggest dreams came true, which was to visit Paris. Doing several shows around the city of light, she lived there for six months.
Back in Brazil in 1957, she was very successful on TV and radio with the song "A Fia de Chico Brito", composed by Chico Anysio.
In that same year of 1957, she fulfilled the biggest dream of her life - to have a daughter, whom she adopted. Her housekeeper Rita was a friend of the girl's mother - who died during childbirth after losing her husband in one of the biggest train accidents in Rio de Janeiro. Rita didn’t have a financial condition to raise the girl, and being single, she took the 3-day-old baby to meet her boss. Dolores was enchanted by the girl, and wanted her as her daughter. While applying for adoption, once again the social prejudice of the time was present - separated but still married, she had to include her husband's name on the child's birth certificate. As Dolores also didn’t have a father's name on her record, she thought of all the social prejudice that her daughter would suffer. As she was still in love with Macedo and he always insisted that they resume their marriage, she decided to inquire him on adding his name. He decided to prove that he regretted his prejudice, and agreed to adopt the black orphan girl. They then had the adoption request granted by the court, getting official custody of the girl, and baptizing her Maria Fernanda da Rocha Macedo.
She tried to become dedicated to being a wife and a mother, but her professional commitments only intensified. She also tried to create healthy habits, but it was very difficult to control her anxiety, insomnia and her strong temper - which made her resort to barbiturates, cigarettes and alcoholic beverages, leaving her very guilty and depressed. The constant fights between the couple returned. Macedo wanted his wife to leave her professional life and be dedicated solely to the marriage and daughter. After discovering new betrayals and tired of suffering with her husband's jealousy, humiliation and aggression, Dolores then definitively ended the marriage in 1958, and the two divorced. She then went back to signing her maiden name, sold her apartment and bought a big house in the South Zone (Zona Sul) of Rio de Janeiro, bringing her mother - who lived alone and was a widow - to live with her.
Recently divorced and becoming more and more successful, a young composer presented Dolores with a song composed by him and Vinícius de Moraes. It was Antônio Carlos Jobim at the beginning of his career. In three minutes, Dolores took an eyebrow pencil and composed the lyrics of the song "Because of You". Vinícius was delighted with the lyrics and kindly gave up the space to Dolores. From then on, Dolores' talent for composition and great hits were revealed, such as "Estrada do Sol", "Ideias Erradas", "Minha Toada" and "A Noite do Meu Bem", among others. However, she did not record all of her compositions, as her repertoire was more centered on the interpreter side, in addition to the fact that her composer side emerged more specifically in the last two years of her short life. During this period, she composed some of the most outstanding MPB songs, such as "Castigo" and "Olha o Tempo Passando", among many others. Her most constant partner was the pianist Ribamar. That same year, after having a loving relationship with several actors, composers and singers, she met a younger musician, named Nonato Pinheiro. He liked the singer, and in a short time of friendship, they started dating.
Death
On the night of October 23, 1959, after a show at the Little Club nightclub at Beco das Garrafas in Copacabana, the singer left with her boyfriend, Nonato, and their friends, including Julie Joy, for a high society musical party, for selected artists only, at the exquisite Clube da Aeronáutica. Upon leaving this event, they decided to close the night drinking, dancing and listening to songs at the Kit Club nightclub. The singer arrived home very happy, at seven in the morning, on the 24th of October.
Then, after bathing and playing with her daughter in the bathtub, she handed her to the nanny as she had to sleep before a show that night. She was tired but calm and friendly while giving the last recommendations to her maid Rita: "Don't wake me up. I'm tired. I'm going to sleep until I die!" - she said, joking and smiling. In the bedroom, while sleeping, she suffered a massive heart attack – which, at the time, was associated with excessive doses of barbiturates, cigarettes and alcoholic beverages.
At night, the maid knocked on her room door, given her delay in waking up, as usually the singer was never late for any show. After managing to ask for help to open the door, Rita despaired when she realized that Dolores had died.
The premature death of Dolores Duran, aged 29, interrupted an intensely lived trajectory. The singer and friend Marisa Gata Mansa took the last verses of Dolores to Carlos Lyra to compose a song. Thus was born the classic "O Negócios É Amar".
Dolores' ex-husband raised the couple's adopted daughter, who in interviews said she was grateful to this woman who welcomed her as a daughter, although she does not remember the moments they spent together, as she was only two years old at the time of her death. mother. Even so, he said he loved her deeply, and that to this day he still worships her memory, trying to keep his mother's work alive through other musicians. She is buried at Quadra 55, grave 21,556 at Cemitério do Caju, in Rio de Janeiro.
Posthumous Tributes
The recognition of her talent as a composer only came after her death. Dolores had songs recorded by great interpreters of MPB, with emphasis on Milton Nascimento ("A Noite do Meu Bem"); Tito Madi ("Ancient Tenderness"); Elis Regina and Gal Costa ("Estrada do Sol'); Maysa ("Because of You"); Lúcio Alves, who recorded the album "Dolores Duran - 1960"; and even Frank Sinatra, who recorded in "Sinatra & Company" , in 1971, "Don't Ever Go Away", the English version of "Por Causa de Você".
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_Duran
She made her public singing debut at age 10 on the radio. At age 16 she came up with the stage name Dolores Duran and became a crooner, working mainly at the 1950s nostalgic nightclubs in the Copacabana neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro.
As a singer and composer, Duran was a great exponent of the Samba-Canção samba cancao genre, which emerged in the 1930s. In addition to her, Maysa Matarazzo, Nora Ney, Dalva de Oliveira and Angela Maria stood out in this genre.
The samba-canção samba cancao genre can be compared to the bolero due to the exaltation of romantic love or the suffering caused by an unfulfilled love. Samba-canção preceded the Bossa Nova movement, which emerged at the end of the 1950s. But the latter, an amalgamation of North American jazz with samba from Rio de Janeiro, represented refinement and greater lightness in melodies and interpretations, that replaced personal drama and melancholy melodies.
Even without fluency in other languages, Dolores Duran did so well in her performances that, when attending a show at the Baccarat nightclub located at Rio’s Beco das Garrafas alley in Duvivier Street (later the birth location of Bossa Nova genre), the American singer Ella Fitzgerald declared that she had seen the best version of "My Funny Valentine ", a 1937 Richard Rodgers classic in her native United States performed by 600 artists over the years.
A Pioneer
For researcher Thiago Marques Luiz, Dolores was "the first popular composer of national projection". "Dolores Duran's music is timeless. It represents a moment of intense and creative bohemia and a style that will never be forgotten or outdated, because her songs deal with love in a delicate way, even if sometimes exaggerated or too painful".
A Percussor
Some MPB scholars claim that the songs sung and composed by Dolores Duran paved the way for Bossa Nova, due to the more intimate way in which she interpreted. However, Dolores' songs, notably romantic, were permeated by a macho tone, which only began to be broken from the 60's onwards, with new musical movements that began to emerge along with Bossa Nova, such as Tropicalismo
Biography and Career
She was born in a humble house, in a “vila” on Rua do Propósito, in the Saúde neighborhood of Downtown Rio de Janeiro (Centro), where she lived for a few years. She had a poor childhood and did not know her biological father. She grew up alongside her mother, Josepha Silva da Rocha, her stepfather, Armindo José da Rocha, and her two half-sisters, Solange and Denise. While still a child, she moved to a tenement in the Piedade neighborhood, where she was raised. Since her childhood, she liked to sing and dreamt of being famous. At the age of eight, she contracted rheumatic fever, which almost led to her death, and which left her with a very serious heart murmur.
At the age of twelve, influenced by her friends and convinced of her personal dreams, she decided, with her mother's permission, to enroll in a singing contest. Surprisingly, she sang very well, like a professional, even without having studied music, and won first prize in the program Calouros em Desfile, by Ary Barroso. The presentations on the program became frequent, establishing her artistic career. Against her mother, she left her studies to dedicate herself only to music.
Although she wanted to be a singer, it was very difficult to actually get steady singing work. Because of that, she took the only test available at the time, which was for an actress. She recorded the text and did a good scene, and beat other candidates, managing to work as an actress on Cruzeiro do Sul and Tupi radio stations, in the latter on the show "Hora do Guri".
As a teenager, the young woman still had the dream of being a professional singer. She worked at home with her mother and sisters, sewing and washing clothes for families, and on weekends she acted as an actress on the radio, until, in the late 1940s, she met a rich, influential couple from Rio’s high society: Lauro and Heloísa Paes de Andrade. Heloísa had soirées and concerts in her mansion, and noticing the young woman's beautiful voice in a music competition, invited her to perform at her home. Very moved, Adiléia accepted, and it was a great success, drawing the attention of broadcasters who attended the party, and thus, she was called to record some songs. They help her to really become a singer, taking her to chic and recognized locations, frequented by celebrities. Lauro started to call her Dolores Duran, a name certainly inspired by that of the American actress Dolores Moran, who made the cover of a magazine in Brazil at the time.
Languages
Never having studied languages, she taught herself to sing in English, French, Italian, Spanish and even Esperanto.
Ella Fitzgerald, during her visit to the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro in the 1950s went to the Baccarat nightclub in Beco das Garrafas located at an alley in Copacabana’s Duvivier Street - the location where Bossa Nova later flourished - specially to see Dolores and was delighted with the interpretation of "My Funny Valentine" - a best she had ever heard, Fitzgerald declared.
At the beginning of her pilgrimage through Rio's nightclubs in the 1950s, a journalist began to constantly praise her in his column. That journalist was Fernando Lobo, a native of Pernambuco living in Rio (a leap-sex composer) and father of musician Edu Lobo, whose column "Mesa de Pista" was published in Jornal O Globo. Another journalist, also from Pernambuco and who was also based in Rio, and who encouraged her a lot was Antônio Maria, as he wrote publications about her.
In 1952, Dolores recorded her debut album, which featured songs like "Canção da Volta" (Antonio Maria-Ismael Neto) and "Bom É Querer Bem" (Fernando Lobo). Her first composition, "Se É por Falta de Adeus", was written with Antonio Carlos Jobim and recorded by Dóris Monteiro. She wrote two other pop music classics with Jobim, "Por Causa de Você" and "Estrada de Sol". Dolores wrote also: "Fim de Caso", "Solidão", "Castigo", as well as "Pela Rua", "Ternura Antiga" and "Idéias Erradas", written with Ribamar.
Dolores toured the former Soviet Union in 1958 with other Brazilian performers, and later spent some time in Paris on her way back to South America. She recorded her greatest hit, "A Noite do Meu Bem" a few days before she died.
Personal Life
Dolores Duran began to receive several invitations to sing in the 50s Rio’s nightlife. She sang in several clubs in the most bohemian and charming neighborhood of that time: Lapa as well as Copacabana. Becoming more and more successful, the conservatism of the time began to weigh on her, when she received criticism from her family for drinking, smoking and getting home in the morning, but none of this made her give up on her dream of surviving exclusively on music.
Always dedicated, she already played the guitar, which she learned by herself, and started to sing international songs on the program "Pescando Estrelas", in which there were only young and renowned singers. There she met and became best friends with the singer of the important Rádio Guanabara and the famous Rádio Nacional, Julie Joy. Through Julie, Dolores started singing on Rádio Guanabara, and consolidated her career. She recorded her songs in radio studios in the South Zone of Rio (Zona Sul). Dolores decided it was time to be independent: she had already conquered her financial independence, now it was time to have her personal freedom. With great sadness, she said goodbye to her mother, stepfather and sisters, and left home. She and Julie rented an apartment in Copacabana, as it was closer to the radio studio, and Dolores wouldn't have to take the tram to Piedade and arrive home late. Despite this, Dolores always went to visit her family and never forgot her humble origins.
Romantic Life, Marriages and Career
In her brief life, Dolores has had many boyfriends and a turbulent romantic life. Her first boyfriend was a waiter at the Vogue nightclub, where she sang. He betrayed her and, repentant, wanted to get back together. Owner of a strong temper, she did not forgive him. After other sporadic relationships, she met and started dating the composer from Paraná Billy Blanco, with whom she had a 6-month relationship. They were very close, and Dolores recorded some of his songs as Billy wrote a prolific lyricist. Dolores also wrote some lyrics which Billy recorded. After the friendly breakup, she had other relationships until starting dating João Donato. The relationship also lasted six months. Their intention to stay together was subject to social and racial prejudice: the boy's family did not accept that he was dating a nightclub singer, who was mulatto and 4 years older than him. Despite a scheduled engagement, he ended up taking his family's advice and abandoned Dolores, going to live in Mexico. Suffering a lot from all this, she composed intense and very successful songs at that time.
Despite her romantic misfortunes, the 1950s began as a milestone for Dolores, who started to sing in the sophisticated nightclubs of the famous Hotel Glória, being invited to tour Brazil.
Dolores' debut album came out in 1952, named “Músicas para o Carnaval” (Songs for the Carnaval) recording two sambas for the following year's Carnaval: "Que Bom Será" (Alice Chaves, Salvador Miceli and Paulo Márquez) and "Já Não Importa" (Domício Costa and Roberto Faissal). In 1953, she recorded "Outono" (Billy Blanco), and "Lama" (Paulo Marquez and Alice Chaves). Two years later, came the songs "Canção da Volta" (Antônio Maria and Ismael Neto), "Bom É Querer Bem" (Fernando Lobo), "Praça Mauá" (Billy Blanco) and "Carioca" (Antônio Maria and Ismael Neto). .
In 1955, she suffered a heart attack and spent 30 days at the Miguel Couto Hospital. This happened as Dolores didn’t follow doctor’s restrictions of sleeping early, avoiding alcohol and cigarettes, and “not experiencing strong emotions”. By not following these recommendations, she ended up aggravating her heart problems as she abused cigarettes (over three packs a day) and alcoholic beverages, especially vodka and whiskey - which always accompanied her at night and sometimes during the day. She feared death, and desired to live intensely. It’s been said Dolores surrendered completely to her desires without thinking about the future.
In early hours, often unable to sleep and alone, she wrote her lyrics on the tables in bars, drinking and smoking, listening to bolero, salsa, choro and samba songs. To compose her unforgettable lyrics, she was inspired by her love affairs and her life in general, but mostly her joys and sorrows.
Marriages
In 1955 she met the singer and composer Macedo Neto at the Copacabana record label, of whom she recorded several sambas. The two struck up a friendship, and soon fell in love.
After a few months of dating, Dolores had a non-planned pregnancy. A little scared but very happy she left the apartment she shared with her friend Julie Joy to live at Macedo Neto's house. Preparing the baby's trousseau and the documents for the official marriage, Dolores, two months pregnant, had severe metrorrhagia and was hospitalized. She had suffered a miscarriage from an ectopic pregnancy, and had become sterile. This fact shook her deeply, and made her very depressed.
The couple then tried to strengthen their union, and trying to recover from this episode, Dolores and Macedo were married in a local registry office, in a small civil ceremony, and held a discreet meeting for close friends.
She took the name Adiléia Silva da Rocha Macedo. Dolores was very sad because her mother did not attend her wedding, only one of her sisters joined the ceremony. Over time, fights due to machismo and jealousy of her husband increased considerably. Later she found out that her husband forbade her mother to attend the wedding because she was black; feeling attacked by such prejudice, she filed for separation. However, after months apart, she forgave him and they were back together.
In 1956, after another year of a marriage filled with many arguments, violent fights and constant humiliation, aggressions and betrayals, Dolores opted for separation and left home. Very shaken, and suffering from insomnia, she began to mix tranquilizers with alcohol, in addition to smoking even more than before.
International Career
In reference to yet another painful separation, Dolores composed the song "Fim de Caso", recorded at 78 rpm, a resounding success, which took her tour Europe, where she sang and performed in several countries in the most prestigious clubs. There, she put together a musical ensemble, with Brazilian and European singers and composers. She performed day and night with great success. From Europe, she went to sing in Uruguay, the Soviet Union and China, in the company of her musical group. Later this musical group disbanded due to disagreement on the music genre they should perform: the group wanted her to sing rhythms that she did not want to sing. Separated from the group, Dolores started to travel alone through several countries on a tour, and then, one of her biggest dreams came true, which was to visit Paris. Doing several shows around the city of light, she lived there for six months.
Back in Brazil in 1957, she was very successful on TV and radio with the song "A Fia de Chico Brito", composed by Chico Anysio.
In that same year of 1957, she fulfilled the biggest dream of her life - to have a daughter, whom she adopted. Her housekeeper Rita was a friend of the girl's mother - who died during childbirth after losing her husband in one of the biggest train accidents in Rio de Janeiro. Rita didn’t have a financial condition to raise the girl, and being single, she took the 3-day-old baby to meet her boss. Dolores was enchanted by the girl, and wanted her as her daughter. While applying for adoption, once again the social prejudice of the time was present - separated but still married, she had to include her husband's name on the child's birth certificate. As Dolores also didn’t have a father's name on her record, she thought of all the social prejudice that her daughter would suffer. As she was still in love with Macedo and he always insisted that they resume their marriage, she decided to inquire him on adding his name. He decided to prove that he regretted his prejudice, and agreed to adopt the black orphan girl. They then had the adoption request granted by the court, getting official custody of the girl, and baptizing her Maria Fernanda da Rocha Macedo.
She tried to become dedicated to being a wife and a mother, but her professional commitments only intensified. She also tried to create healthy habits, but it was very difficult to control her anxiety, insomnia and her strong temper - which made her resort to barbiturates, cigarettes and alcoholic beverages, leaving her very guilty and depressed. The constant fights between the couple returned. Macedo wanted his wife to leave her professional life and be dedicated solely to the marriage and daughter. After discovering new betrayals and tired of suffering with her husband's jealousy, humiliation and aggression, Dolores then definitively ended the marriage in 1958, and the two divorced. She then went back to signing her maiden name, sold her apartment and bought a big house in the South Zone (Zona Sul) of Rio de Janeiro, bringing her mother - who lived alone and was a widow - to live with her.
Recently divorced and becoming more and more successful, a young composer presented Dolores with a song composed by him and Vinícius de Moraes. It was Antônio Carlos Jobim at the beginning of his career. In three minutes, Dolores took an eyebrow pencil and composed the lyrics of the song "Because of You". Vinícius was delighted with the lyrics and kindly gave up the space to Dolores. From then on, Dolores' talent for composition and great hits were revealed, such as "Estrada do Sol", "Ideias Erradas", "Minha Toada" and "A Noite do Meu Bem", among others. However, she did not record all of her compositions, as her repertoire was more centered on the interpreter side, in addition to the fact that her composer side emerged more specifically in the last two years of her short life. During this period, she composed some of the most outstanding MPB songs, such as "Castigo" and "Olha o Tempo Passando", among many others. Her most constant partner was the pianist Ribamar. That same year, after having a loving relationship with several actors, composers and singers, she met a younger musician, named Nonato Pinheiro. He liked the singer, and in a short time of friendship, they started dating.
Death
On the night of October 23, 1959, after a show at the Little Club nightclub at Beco das Garrafas in Copacabana, the singer left with her boyfriend, Nonato, and their friends, including Julie Joy, for a high society musical party, for selected artists only, at the exquisite Clube da Aeronáutica. Upon leaving this event, they decided to close the night drinking, dancing and listening to songs at the Kit Club nightclub. The singer arrived home very happy, at seven in the morning, on the 24th of October.
Then, after bathing and playing with her daughter in the bathtub, she handed her to the nanny as she had to sleep before a show that night. She was tired but calm and friendly while giving the last recommendations to her maid Rita: "Don't wake me up. I'm tired. I'm going to sleep until I die!" - she said, joking and smiling. In the bedroom, while sleeping, she suffered a massive heart attack – which, at the time, was associated with excessive doses of barbiturates, cigarettes and alcoholic beverages.
At night, the maid knocked on her room door, given her delay in waking up, as usually the singer was never late for any show. After managing to ask for help to open the door, Rita despaired when she realized that Dolores had died.
The premature death of Dolores Duran, aged 29, interrupted an intensely lived trajectory. The singer and friend Marisa Gata Mansa took the last verses of Dolores to Carlos Lyra to compose a song. Thus was born the classic "O Negócios É Amar".
Dolores' ex-husband raised the couple's adopted daughter, who in interviews said she was grateful to this woman who welcomed her as a daughter, although she does not remember the moments they spent together, as she was only two years old at the time of her death. mother. Even so, he said he loved her deeply, and that to this day he still worships her memory, trying to keep his mother's work alive through other musicians. She is buried at Quadra 55, grave 21,556 at Cemitério do Caju, in Rio de Janeiro.
Posthumous Tributes
The recognition of her talent as a composer only came after her death. Dolores had songs recorded by great interpreters of MPB, with emphasis on Milton Nascimento ("A Noite do Meu Bem"); Tito Madi ("Ancient Tenderness"); Elis Regina and Gal Costa ("Estrada do Sol'); Maysa ("Because of You"); Lúcio Alves, who recorded the album "Dolores Duran - 1960"; and even Frank Sinatra, who recorded in "Sinatra & Company" , in 1971, "Don't Ever Go Away", the English version of "Por Causa de Você".
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolores_Duran
Feiúra Não é Nada
Dolores Duran Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Castiga um pano mais legal no couro,
Castiga um pente que também ajuda,
Castiga os dedos nuns anéis de ouro,
Castiga mesmo que a coisa muda.
Põe um decote melhorzinho no vestido,
Tem fé em deus que tua feiúra não é nada,
Gente mais feia encontrou marido,
Enquanto a bonitona ficou encalhada !
Feiúra não é mais tormento,
Depois do advento do baton e da massagem,
Uma pomada aqui, um misampli ali,
Um pouco de perfume,e de coragem,
Já vi gente mais feia do que tu,
Ser elegante da bangu e quitandinha,
Mete a cara, pois concurso de beleza,
Não tem mais a dureza que outrora tinha.
Castiga um pano mais legal no couro,
Castiga um pente que também ajuda,
Castiga o dedo nuns anéis de ouro,
Castiga mesmo que a coisa muda,
Põe um decote melhorzinho no vestido,
Tem fé em deus que essa feiúra não é nada,
Gente mais feia encontrou marido,
E quanta bonitona ficou encalhada !
Feiúra não é mais tormento,
Depois do advento do baton e da massagem,
Uma pomada aqui, um misampli ali,
Um pouco de perfume, um pouco de coragem,
Já vi gente mais feia do que tu,
Ser elegante da bangu e quitandinha,
Mete a cara, pois concurso de beleza,
Não tem mais a dureza que outrora tinha
Castiga um pente que também ajuda,
Castiga os dedos nuns anéis de ouro,
Castiga mesmo que a coisa muda.
Põe um decote melhorzinho no vestido,
Tem fé em deus que tua feiúra não é nada,
Gente mais feia encontrou marido,
Feiúra não é mais tormento,
Depois do advento do baton e da massagem,
Uma pomada aqui, um misampli ali,
Um pouco de perfume,e de coragem,
Já vi gente mais feia do que tu,
Ser elegante da bangu e quitandinha,
Mete a cara, pois concurso de beleza,
Não tem mais a dureza que outrora tinha.
Castiga um pano mais legal no couro,
Castiga um pente que também ajuda,
Castiga o dedo nuns anéis de ouro,
Castiga mesmo que a coisa muda,
Põe um decote melhorzinho no vestido,
Tem fé em deus que essa feiúra não é nada,
Gente mais feia encontrou marido,
E quanta bonitona ficou encalhada !
Feiúra não é mais tormento,
Depois do advento do baton e da massagem,
Uma pomada aqui, um misampli ali,
Um pouco de perfume, um pouco de coragem,
Já vi gente mais feia do que tu,
Ser elegante da bangu e quitandinha,
Mete a cara, pois concurso de beleza,
Não tem mais a dureza que outrora tinha
The lyrics of Dolores Duran's song Feiúra Não É Nada can be interpreted as a message of self-esteem and empowerment to women who may not fit into conventional beauty standards. The song lists different ways in which a person can enhance their appearance such as buying nicer clothes or wearing jewelry, but ultimately encourages the listener to have faith in themselves and not worry about their external features.
The lyrics also challenge the idea that beauty is the only quality that can attract a partner, as the song suggests that even people who are considered unattractive can find love. The message of the song is ultimately that beauty is not a determining factor in a person's worth or happiness, and that it is important to focus on inner qualities as well.
Overall, Feiúra Não É Nada is a song that encourages self-acceptance and celebrates the diversity of beauty, while also challenging societal norms that prioritize external appearance.
Line by Line Meaning
Castiga um pano mais legal no couro
Invest in nicer clothes
Castiga um pente que também ajuda
Use a good comb to style your hair
Castiga os dedos nuns anéis de ouro
Wear gold rings on your fingers
Castiga mesmo que a coisa muda
Make an effort even if it seems difficult
Põe um decote melhorzinho no vestido
Wear a dress with a better neckline
Tem fé em deus que tua feiúra não é nada
Believe in God and know that your ugliness is not everything
Gente mais feia encontrou marido
People who are uglier than you have found love
Enquanto a bonitona ficou encalhada!
While beautiful people remain single!
Feiúra não é mais tormento
Ugliness is not as much of a problem as it used to be
Depois do advento do baton e da massagem
With the advent of lipstick and massages
Uma pomada aqui, um misampli ali
A little cream here, a little makeup there
Um pouco de perfume,e de coragem
Some perfume and courage
Já vi gente mais feia do que tu
I've seen people uglier than you
Ser elegante da bangu e quitandinha
You can be elegant even if you're from a lower-class neighborhood
Mete a cara, pois concurso de beleza
Put yourself out there, because beauty contests
Não tem mais a dureza que outrora tinha.
Are not as harsh as they used to be.
Contributed by Max W. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
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