I recently fell in love with the music of Luísa Maita. Her first album Lero-Lero is as street smart as it gets. Do you know what lero-lero means? It means a casual conversation without a goal in mind; or simply chit-chat. How could I not love this album?
Lero-Lero has a marked urban characteristic. Having grown up in São Paulo, Luísa Maita uses casual language to sing about life in the city. In an interview with Alexandra Makowski (video below), Luísa said that the urban quality of Lero-Lero came about both naturally and as an intentional choice: Luísa created this album looking at people and observing them as they went about their lives in the city. I find this very beautiful and poetic.
Luísa started singing lessons at age 19. It probably wasn’t a surprise to anyone: She comes from a family of musicians and musical producers.
Before launching her first solo album, Luísa Maita worked in pretty much everything that would give her an opportunity to grow as a musician, from singing at weddings to performing voz e violão in barzinhos.
Have you enjoyed voz e violão in Brazil? This is when artists perform at a bar with only their singing (voice = voz) and their guitar (violão). This is a very common bar scene in Brazil. I would have so loved to see Luisa Maita in such setting.
One of my favorite songs from the albums is Alento:
Turn music into active language learning
You can improve your language skills with songs. To do that, look up the lyrics to the songs you like online. Take notes about vocabulary that is new to you. Pay attention to grammar. Observe pronunciation and sing along with your favorite singers.
Language learning is challenging, but there are fun, simple ways to make the journey more joyful.
Photo by Ariel Martini
Leave a Reply