Gracinha Leporace

Gracinha Leporace with Sérgio Mendes (1971)

Gracinha Leporace (born Maria da Graça Leporace) is a Brazilian singer who worked extensively with her husband Sérgio Mendes and his band.

Leporace was born in 1949, in the suburb of Rio de Janeiro known as Ipanema. She has a sister, Marianna Leporace, who is a singer and actress in Brazil.

Leporace has featured regularly in much of her husband's group's releases over the last four decades and can be heard as the Portuguese-singing female vocal in the hit "Mas que Nada" (featuring The Black Eyed Peas) from the 2006 album Timeless and in the Baden Powell de Aquino composition "Berimbau/Consolação" from the same album, in which she provides the lead vocal. She has most recently been featured on Sergio Mendes' album Magic, released in 2014. She also appears frequently in concert with Mendes' band as a vocalist.

Along with her work with Sergio Mendes, she was a member of the Bossa Nova group known in the early 1970s as Bossa Rio.

Leporace has two sons with Mendes, Gustavo and Tiago. They currently reside in a suburb of Los Angeles, California.

Discography

• 1968 Gracinha Leporace, Philips

References

• Last.fm biography of Gracinha Leporace

External links

• Photo of Gracinha from a 1967 magazine cover
• Photo of Gracinha from the 2008 Cape Town International Jazz Festival