Leny de Andrade Lima (25 January 1943 – 24 July 2023), known professionally as Leny Andrade, was a Brazilian singer and musician. Both Andrade's first and last names are sometimes misspelled in English as "Lenn", "Leni", and "Adrade".[citation needed] She had several hits on the Brazilian charts. In 2007 she shared a Latin Grammy Award with Cesar Camargo Mariano for Best MPB (Musica Popular Brasileira) Album, Ao Vivo.
Leny de Andrade Lima was born in Rio de Janeiro on 25 January 1943.[1]
Andrade began her career singing in clubs, lived five years in Mexico, and spent a good part of her life living in the United States and Europe. She studied piano at the Brazilian Conservatory of Music.
Reception
Andrade was described by Tony Bennett as the "Ella Fitzgerald of Brazil" and others compared her to the late Sarah Vaughan.[2] In Europe where she toured, she was the Brazilian First Lady of Jazz, building a huge fan base in the Netherlands and Italy. She recorded the album Embraceable You in July 1991 at Volendam, the Netherlands.[3]
Stephen Holden of The New York Times wrote of Andrade's performance at Birdland on 27 August 2008, "To describe Ms. Andrade as both the Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald of bossa nova only goes so far in evoking a performer whose voice seems to contain the body and soul of Brazil. You may think you know "The Girl from Ipanema", the final number in the show's opening medley of Jobim songs. But you haven't really absorbed it until you've heard Ms. Andrade sing it in Portuguese; disgorge might be a better word than sing, since, like everything else she performs, it seems to well up from the center of the earth."[4]
Death
Leny Andrade died on 24 July 2023, at the age of 80.[5] She had been suffering from Lewy body dementia.[6]
Andrade was a longtime friend of Dóris Monteiro, who also died on the same day.[7] The joint wake took place on 25 July 2023 at Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro.[8]
