Sula Miranda

A highly successful sertanejo (hillbilly) vocalist since the 1980s, Sula Miranda formed the group As Melindrosas with her two sisters in the late '70s , recording an album with cantigas de roda played as disco music. The group achieved success and participated in the film É Proibido Beijar As Melindrosas, with Sula's sister Gretchen and Genival Lacerda also taking part. Sula Miranda left the group in 1981 to get married. After her husband's suicide, she became a TV chorus girl, recording her first solo LP in 1986, Sula Miranda, Vol. 1, which had the hit "Caminhoneiro do Amor" (Joel Marques) and sold 250,000 copies in two months. The hit gave her her first gold record and the title of "Queen of the Truck Drivers." Others hits of hers were, in the late 1987, "A Voz do Rádio" (Paulo Camargo and Iara Camargo); in 1988, "Rumo Certo" (Joel Marques); and in 1990, "Seu Olhar" (Mário Maranhão and Tivas). In the '90s, she had several successes like "Estrada Afora" (Paulo Debétio and Paulinho Resende), "Com o Pé Na Estrada" (a version for "The Boxer" by Paul Simon), and "Only Yesterday" (Richard Carpenter and John Bettis, in her own version). In the '90s, she also hosted her own TV shows Programa Sula Miranda (TV Record, 1993) and the Sula Miranda Show (TV Manchete, 1997). ~ Alvaro Neder