Simone de Oliveira

Simone de Oliveira at Eurovision

Simone de Oliveira, GCIH (born 11 February 1938) is a Portuguese singer and actress. Simone was born and raised in Lisbon. Her Portuguese father had black African roots in São Tomé and Príncipe (then a Portuguese territory), and her mother was Belgian. She started singing in high school. She is a breast cancer survivor .

Music

She started her career at the end of the 1950s.

Sol de inverno (1965) represented Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 1965.

She became fairly famous in 1969 with the song Desfolhada portuguesa, with lyrics by José Carlos Ary dos Santos and music by Nuno Nazareth Fernandes. This song was a great success in Portugal, having innovative lyrics during the time of the dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar. It represented Portugal in the Eurovision Song Contest 1969 in Madrid. Despite her popularity at home, it was not successful at the Eurovision, getting only 4 votes.

Other successful songs:

• Maria solidão
• Deixa lá
• Desfolhada
• À tua espera

Actress

Theater

Simone de Oliveira is also a theater actress.

Main plays:

• A tragédia da Rua das Flores
• "Passa por mim no Rossio" (a great success in Portugal)
• Maldita cocaína.
• A homage to the singer Madalena Iglésias in the musical play "What happened to Madalena Iglésias" (another success)
• Alma Mahler-Werfel in Joshua Sobols play Alma (2003, directed by Paulus Manker) in Convento dos Inglesinhos in Lisbon.

Cinema

• Canção da saudade (1964)
• Operação diamante (1967)
• Cântico final (1976)
• A estrangeira (1983)

TV

She has participated in several Portuguese telenovelas:

• Roseira brava
• Vidas de sal
• Senhora das águas
• Morangos com açúcar
• Tu e eu
• Vila Faia: 25 anos depois

Curiosities

Simone was a jury member in the contest Chuva de Estrelas, which has uncovered new talents in Portuguese music.

External links

• Lyric of entry Sol de inverno, (1965)
• Lyrics of entry Desfolhada portuguesa , (1969)
• Blog with informations and photos of Simone Oliveira