Eugénia Melo e Castro


Eugénia Melo e Castro, born Maria Eugénia Menéres de Melo e Castro is a Portuguese singer-songwriter.

Personal life

Eugénia was born in the city of Covilhã, central inland Portugal, in 1958, and lived in the city until she was 14. She left the city for studying in Lisbon. Her father, Ernesto de Melo e Castro, is a poet, professor and textile engineer who earned a doctorate in literature from the University of São Paulo, and her mother Maria Alberta Menéres, was a writer. Her grandfather, a chemical engineer, was a noted entrepreneur in the important textiles industrial sector of Covilhã. Her grandfather Ernesto was a conductor, composer, and violinist. Her first contact with the professional music scene came through collaborative works for José Afonso, Vitorino and Sérgio Godinho, among others. Eugénia studied and lived in different locations during her teen years, and when she was 21, already divorced and mother of a girl, she went to Brazil in order to pursue her desire of being a singer-songwriter. She maintains houses in São Paulo and in Portugal.

Career

Her first album, released in 1982,Terra de Mel, included collaborations of several Portuguese and Brazilian musicians. These associations have been often in the rest of her discography. Her music is framed in MPB. She made theatre in 1977/78 with A Barraca and appeared in a number of movie and television works.

Discography