Rosa Passos

A marvelously talented bossa nova singer-songwriter who's earned the accolade "the female Joao Gilberto," Rosa Passos has been experiencing something of a renaissance in recent years. Passos grew up in Salvador, the capital of Bahia, where she began playing piano at the age of three. By the time she was in her teens, she was writing her own songs, playing guitar and singing on local television. Despite a record deal and some decent exposure, however, her career failed to launch in the 1970s, and at the end of the decade she took a hiatus, moving to Brasilia, where she married and concentrated on raising a family. She returned to recording slowly, beginning in the late '80s. In recent years she's gained renown for her engrossing living performances and for her Grammy-winning part in Yo-Yo Ma's Obrigado Brazil.