Time seems to run at a different pace for Elza Soares. The Brazilian samba legend is 81 but on the eve of a Rio de Janeiro concert for her recent album Deus e Mulher (God is a woman), you wouldn’t think so.
“Let me tell you, my age has nothing in common with the way I feel,” she said .
In her unmistakable tone, Ms. Soares described herself as excited as ever to be going on stage, even if she now sings seated. “I consider this a good moment, an extraordinary one in my career. I don’t know if it’s the best. The best was when I started. Things are always marvelous when you start,” she said.
Ms. Soares’s powerful voice is an integral part of Brazilian music. She embodied samba and went on to play a major role in modern interpretations of the sensual, rhythmic Brazilian sound, mixing in everything from bossa nova to jazz, Afrobeat and funk.
Her latest album, released in May, draws on a recent surge in debates about the role of women in Brazil, where rapes and femicide — the intentional killing of women — are growing. “It’s my country, my land and I love it so much, but we almost have no rights. Poor, black, female — what rights are there?”
“I see women becoming more open, with greater ability to express themselves, to demand more, to ask for their rights,” she said.
“The enslavement of women is over. Without women, you have no world... That’s why God is a woman, God is mother.”