There are two artists who use this name:
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.

If I Forget You
Maysa Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I'll never forget you
But should I forget you
Then let my eyes forget
That they have
Seen the day, my love

And let my ears
Not hear sweet children

At their play, my love
And let my lips forget
That they have learned
To pray, my love
If I forsake you
If I forsake you

I'll never forget you
But should I forget you
Then may
I ever know the bitter
Not the sweet, my love

And may I never find
A friendly hand
To greet, my love
And let
This heart of mine
Forget that it
Must beat, my love
If I forget
If I forget you

If I forget
If I forget you

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Maysa's song If I Forget You are a declaration of unending love and devotion to the subject of the song. The opening line, "I'll never forget you, but should I forget you, then let my eyes forget that they have seen the day, my love", suggest that the singer is willing to exchange even the ability to see the beauty of the world, for the memory of her love. The next verse expresses a wish for her ears to stop hearing "sweet children" in their play, and her lips to forget ever having learned to pray if she were to ever forsake her love. These verses suggest a willingness to part with cherished aspects of life if it meant losing the memory of the love.

In the next verse, Maysa wishes to never know the sweetness of life but instead knows only the bitter, should she ever forget her love. She also hopes to never find a friendly hand to greet, and to forget that her heart must beat. The final verse reiterates the commitment to never forget, with the final line, "if I forget you", repeated twice for added emphasis.

Overall, the lyrics to If I Forget You is a testament to unwavering devotion and commitment to love. It shows the power of love and its ability to penetrate deep into one's being, and also the fear of losing it.

Line by Line Meaning

I'll never forget you
I will always remember you.

But should I forget you
However, if I were to forget you

Then let my eyes forget That they have Seen the day, my love
I would rather lose the ability to see the light of day than forget the memory of you.

And let my ears Not hear sweet children At their play, my love
I would rather lose the ability to hear children play than forget your voice.

And let my lips forget That they have learned To pray, my love
I would rather not know how to pray than forget the love I have for you.

If I forsake you If I forsake you
Even if I were to abandon you

I'll never forget you
I will never forget you, even if I try.

Then may I ever know the bitter Not the sweet, my love
I would rather feel only pain and bitterness than forget the love I have for you.

And may I never find A friendly hand To greet, my love
I would rather live in solitude than forget the love I have for you.

And let This heart of mine Forget that it Must beat, my love
I would rather not have a beating heart than forget the love I have for you.

If I forget If I forget you
Even if I were to forget you.