1. A Brazilian MPB singer and s… Read Full Bio ↴There are two artists who use this name:
1. A Brazilian MPB singer and songwriter
2. A Grammy-nominated American jazz singer
1. Maysa Figueira Monjardim Matarazzo (June 6, 1936, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – January 22, 1977, Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), better known as Maysa Matarazzo or simply Maysa, was a Brazilian singer, songwriter and actress, being one of the first female songwriters of Brazil and one of the precursors of the genre samba-canção. She had great success in the 1950s and 1960s, known especially for her pessimistic, hopeless, melancholic and dramatic lyrics and interpretations, very characteristic of her image and career. She is also associated with bossa nova music, but is widely known as a torch song (música de fossa) interpreter.
Maysa's grandfather was Alfeu Adolfo Monjardim de Andrade e Almeida, the 1st Baron of Monjardim, and wife Laurinda Luísa Pinto Pereira. Maysa showed talent at a young age and by twelve had written a samba song, which later became a hit from her first album. She married André Matarazzo Filho, a member of a wealthy and traditional São Paulo family in 1954 at the age of 18 and two years later had a son, Jayme Monjardim. Jayme would later be known as a television director. In the late 1950s she formed a successful bossa nova group and also did television work relying on her magnificent pair of gorgeous green eyes.
Her tour to Buenos Aires first projected bossa nova beyond Brazil's borders but was not without controversy. The tour was a great success and extended to Chile and Uruguay, but Maysa had an affair with the show's producer, Ronaldo Bôscoli, a journalist and composer linked romantically to bossa nova's muse Nara Leão. This led not only to a break between Nara and Ronaldo, but also to a fracture in the bossa nova movement. Nara supported Carlos Lyra's nationalist vertent of the bossa nova movement, to the detriment of Boscoli's more orthodox approach, emphasizing form rather than content in bossa nova compositions. Nara also began courting older composers of traditional sambas, such as morro composers Zé Kéti and Cartola. She also became an idol of the protest song genre against the military dictatorship in Brazil. Nara's pocket show "Opinião" marked the start of a series of protest musical shows, which both in Rio and São Paulo distracted the public from the main themes of "the love, the smile and the flower", typical of the bossa nova years. So Maysa became "persona non grata" both to the bossa-novistas and the protest singers and her career faltered. She reacted by marrying Spaniard music producer Miguel Anzana, with whom she moved to Spain and began a series of presentations not only in Spain, but also Portugal, Italy and France.
Her personal life, already tumultuous, became even more chaotic leading to her being called "the Janis Joplin of Bossa Nova". But she later made a come back with one of the first notable shows in Rio's "Canecão" venue, the equivalent of Carnegie Hall in NYC. Maysa also played the Olympia in Paris to a full house twice and enjoyed considerable success in Europe. She is still considered the best Brazilian "torch song" (fossa) musician, rivaled only perhaps by Nora Ney as interpreter and Dolores Duran as composer. Upon her return to Brazil, Maysa continued to blend her old unique "broken love affair" trademarks with the more current festival style and occasional bossa nova hits. In the 1970s Maysa tapped her actress side and acted on a few telenovelas in Brazil. She also composed the soundtrack for a Rede Globo telenova just as the TV network became the powerhouse of Brazilian soap operas. She appeared more in peace with herself in latter years but died in a car crash in 1977, on the Rio-Niterói bridge, which connects the cities of Rio de Janeiro and Niterói over the Guanabara Bay.
In January 2009, 32 years after her death, a miniseries about her life was broadcast on Brazilian television and spanned two new books about one of Brazil's most charismatic divas. Maysa's style influenced the following generations of Brazilian female singers and composers, with great ascendancy in the works of Angela Ro Ro, Simone, Cazuza, Leila Pinheiro and Fafá de Belém.
2. Maysa Leak (born August 17, 1966) is an American jazz singer better known by her mononym Maysa. She is well known by fans of smooth jazz both for her solo work and for her work with the British band Incognito.
After receiving her degree from Morgan State University, Maysa headed to Southern California to perform with Stevie Wonder’s female backup group Wonderlove, While with Wonder, Maysa was a vocalist on the Jungle Fever soundtrack and performed on numerous television shows including The Arsenio Hall Show, Oprah and The Tonight Show.
It was during an over-the-telephone audition in the early 90s, that Maysa become a member of the acclaimed British jazz/funk/R&B band Incognito and in 1992 she relocated to London and recorded Tribes, Vibes & Scribes, featuring the hit single "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing." Since then, Maysa has appeared on over seven Incognito recordings.
Maysa recorded her self-titled debut in 1995, followed by her second album All My Life in 2000, Out of The Blue in 2002, Smooth Sailing in 2004, Sweet Classic Soul in 2006, and now Feel The Fire, 2007. In 2008, Metamorphosis peaked at No.1 on Billboard's Top Contemporary Jazz top 100 chart and no.13 on Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. In 2010, "A Woman in Love", Maysa 8th Solo cd debuted at No.1 on the Contemporary Jazz Charts. Maysa's 9th solo album,Motions of Love, released in November 2011, debuted at No. 1 on Billboards Contemporary Jazz Charts and Number 7 on the R&B charts.
Maysa has also collaborated with well-known jazz performers like Gerald Veasley, Rick Braun, Will Downing, Jason Miles' Soul Summit, Rhythm Logic, Jonathan Butler and Pieces of a Dream.
In 2009, Maysa won the very first new Soul Train Award named for the brand's new owners, CENTRIC. The Cenric Award : Soul Approved /Underground.
Maysa Leak was a spokesperson for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), a disease that can be fatal to premature babies. She appears in RSV PSA commercials, with her son Jazz, sponsored for the March of Dimes.
In 2013, Maysa received her first Grammy nomination in the "Best Traditional R&B Performance" award category for the song "Quiet Fire" from her album Blue Velvet Soul.
A Woman in Love
Maysa Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
A woman in love
A woman in love
A woman in love
Spoken:
Have you ever seen a woman in love?
She walks taller than the highest mountain in the sky above
Have you ever seen a woman in love?
Have you seen a woman in love?
She knows how to make sunshine out of the rain
A woman in love
Knows exactly how to kiss away the pain
Singing Chorus:
A woman in love is more precious than gold
A woman in love is the truth untold
A woman in love seems to carry
The whole world in her arms
A woman in love
A woman in love
A woman in love
A woman in love
Spoken:
Have you ever seen a woman in love?
She carries a special purpose in this world
She glows like the beautiful rays of the sun
Have you ever seen a woman in love?
Chorus
:
The song "A Woman in Love" by Maysa celebrates and honors the power and beauty of love as experienced by women. The repetition of the phrase "a woman in love" functions as a mantra, emphasizing the significance of this state of being. The spoken word sections of the song invite the listener to contemplate the awe-inspiring qualities of a woman who is in love. Maysa describes such a woman as someone who walks confidently, with the strength and grace of a mountain, and who radiates warmth and positivity like the sun.
The chorus of the song further defines the qualities that make a woman in love so precious and worthy of celebration. Maysa sings that such a woman is "more precious than gold" and that she carries "the truth untold." This implies that a woman in love is a rare and profound force in the world, one that embodies a deep and universal truth that is difficult to articulate. The final lines of the chorus describe a woman in love as someone who can carry the weight of the world in her arms, implying that she has an inherent capacity for empathy and compassion.
Overall, "A Woman in Love" is a powerful and uplifting anthem that celebrates the beauty and transformative power of love as experienced by women.
Line by Line Meaning
A woman in love
The subject of the song is a woman who is in love
A woman in love
The woman's love is the central focus of the song
A woman in love
The song emphasizes the importance of a woman who is in love
A woman in love
The song highlights the significance of a woman's love
Have you ever seen a woman in love?
The singer is questioning whether the listener has seen a woman in love
She walks taller than the highest mountain in the sky above
A woman in love exudes confidence and feels empowered
She glows like the beautiful rays of the sun
A woman in love radiates warmth and happiness
Have you seen a woman in love?
The singer is again questioning whether the listener has witnessed a woman in love
She knows how to make sunshine out of the rain
A woman in love has the ability to turn negativity into positivity
A woman in love knows exactly how to kiss away the pain
A woman in love can provide comfort and healing to her partner
A woman in love is more precious than gold
A woman who has found true love is a rare and invaluable treasure
A woman in love is the truth untold
The depth of a woman's love cannot be fully expressed or explained
A woman in love seems to carry
The song suggests that a woman in love has a weighty responsibility
The whole world in her arms
A woman in love has the ability to make the world a better place
She carries a special purpose in this world
The singer believes that a woman in love is meant to accomplish significant things
Chorus
This is the repeated chorus of the song, emphasizing the importance and value of a woman in love
Contributed by Parker V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.