One of the blessings afforded to me by choosing this small platform to hold a conversation, is that I get to talk about artists like Rosana Fiengo. While other sites may go back in history, rewarm stories about “ye olde classic rock band”…or worse…act as a gatekeeper, confusing rarity and exclusivity for something of value, I feel we’ve gotten to a point where y’all can appreciate artists that were in fact…popular, if not as well-known as they ultimately should have been. I say this because Rosana, at least in her native Brazil, was/is a true force of nature. And for those who know, navigating through her myriad personal controversies tends to obscure one important thing: her voice and music remain a magnificent thing. And it’s the main Rosana’s Doce Pecado, deserves a much larger audience than it already has.
Rosana was born in 1954 to Spanish musician Aldo Fienngo, then living in São Paulo, Brazil. From age six, Rosana was encouraged to take piano lessons and shortly thereafter became proficient enough to slowly dip her toes in public performance. By the time Rosana was a tween she had begun to perform as a vocalist with dance bands like Cry Babies or with her dad’s band, Casanova, and write songs that would be sung by others, as Tim Maia would do with her, “Já Era Tempo de Você”, in 1972.
It was during this period that Rosana would fall under the influence of the incomparable Elis Regina. It was after an Elis Regina concert, that Elis herself encouraged the young singer to strike out on her own and fight for her own voice.
Years would pass before Rosana settled on music. In the beginning, she felt more comfortable playing a background role for others. With time, as her depth of music knowledge grew. Her special talent on being able to pick up and learn almost any musical instrument, from keyboards to guitar, found her taking part in various Brazilian TV shows. Yet, for all her latent star qualities, her ambition was split between this creative outlet and a more traditional world where she could afford to go to university, study psychology, and prepare for a career in that field.
Luckily for us, Rosana would choose a career in music. Hard-earned early singles that dabbled in disco and soul music would eventually land her a major label, signing with RCA Records. It’s on her 1983 debut, Rosana, one could hear just how special her voice was. Featuring music by Lincoln Olivetti and production by Hélcio Do Carmo, Rosana’s work slotted perfectly into MPB that was experimenting with boogie and electro-funk. And in no time, Rosana’s music could be heard in discos and soundtracking countless Brazilian telenovelas, making her increasingly a household name.
And it’s not easy to see why. Blessed with a fiery, camera-friendly personality and those amazing pipes, Rosana enjoyed being every bit of diva others thought she was. Yet for all the success of her debut, Rosana would take years mired in label problems to find a way out to record her sophomore release. It was the constant issue faced by many successful female pop singers: “When do I get to do things my way?”
Signing to Sony’s Epic label brought the promise of a bigger recording budget, better promotion, and far more control over the kind of music and stylistic choices Rosanna wanted to make. Her first release on Epic, 1987’s Coração Selvagem, found her luxuriating in the R&B world, picking music that can show or express the breath of her singing range. For someone whose early singing idols were Gladys Knight and Tina Turner, to cover Minnie Ripperton’s “Loving You” as “O Dom Do Nosso Amor”, put the gauntlet down, showing she had all the tools to reach those same high notes…if only others gave her the space to do so. In short notice, her cover of Jennifer Rush’s “The Power Of Love” (“O Amor E O Poder”) eventually popularized by Celine Dion, rocketed up Brazilian charts, on the strength of that undeniably powerful voice.
As with other balladeering singers of the time like Whitney Houston, each succeeding album, like 1989’s Onde O Amor Me Leva tried to make the case that, yeah, the “girl can sing” but can she swing? Songs like “Cidadã Do Mundo” and “Onde O Amor Me Leva” made the case that Rosana understood that aiming for MOR (middle-of-the-road) wasn’t sustainable, she wanted to touch on contemporary urban soul music that was being made elsewhere and create something new for her audience. It was a risky proposition. Would Rosana feel comfortable enough to get out of the comfort zone that many knew as her bread and butter or could exposing her audiences to something else be far more personally-fulfilling?
Doce Pecado presents a promise fulfilled. On other records you always sensed there was less measured, more freewheeling Rosanna in it but always this freedom was always tempered by the need to fit a trend. Things changed when Rosanna decided to work with American producer, Ronnie Foster (best known for his work with Djavan, Guilherme Arantes, and George Benson) and British multi-instrumentalist Chris Cameron (famous for his work with George Michael and Terence Trent D’Arby). Together they invited back songwriters Cláudio Rabello and Torcuato Mariano from the previous record, and gave them a degree of support encouraging them to keep exploring that far more contemporary-sounding urban feel they displayed on their few tracks.
Recording sessions for 1990’s Doce Pecado were held almost entirely in Los Angeles, California with Ronnie handling most of the album’s music. And it appears, at least to this critic, that this change in scenery brought about a wonderful freedom to Rosana’s creative expression and ideas.
Under the influence of the more laid-back West Coast R&B scene and the burgeoning neo-soul movement, Rosanna’s music underwent an interesting shift. Under the titular song, the absolutely blazing “Doce Pecado”, all sorts of Teddy Riley-isms got transported through the windswept, saudade, of Brazilian soul music and the fire of acid jazz. As a dance pop diva, Rosanna never sounded as muscular and “with it” as she would on this record.
We feel and hear the sharper influence of hip-hop and dance production on tracks like “Gaiola de Ouro” or “Todos Os Sentidos”. Where Fernanda Abreu’s Sla Radical Dance Disco Club, another album orbiting similar musical systems, turned to the club-ready sounds of the East Coast and England, Rosana’s moods were found more in America’s late-night parties and quiet storm, freaky-deaky, hookups. It’s something we can imbibe in the gorgeous, post-Minneapolis sound balladry of a track like “Acasos” predicting a tact a group like Mint Condition or singers like Janice would take. Everywhere one turned, Rosana laced each track with a powerful vocal performance that aimed for the back row.
Album highlight, “Riscos Do Amor”, finds an awfully cozy midpoint between new school Brazilian soul music and that of the American hybrid pop scene, one experimenting with a harder-nosed sound. For us, this means we get to hear Rosanna strike that wonderful range only she can hit, with the ease of those vocal giants we know on a first name basis. I mean, if you think about it, it would take Mariah three more years to reach the kind of vocal ease with the urban soul scene as you hear here. Does it take anyone with much critical taste to instantly recognize just how nuanced and sophisticated something else, something like track “Oasis” is? Without Rosana’s voice the track and the album is lost at sea.
Rosana would go on to do other albums that re-oriented Brazilian standards with contemporary sound and smooth out some of the rougher edges she explored here and improbably try to mold her as a more straightlaced Brazilian balladeer. However, looking back, there’s just something about this album that speaks clearer to just what kind of talent Rosana had to squeeze out of music where her heart truly belonged. Hit songs from this record soundtracked huge Mexican and Brazilian telenovelas, rocketing it to huge sales in her homeland. In the end, perhaps it’s only sin was that it only landed back in Brazil when it was ready for flight everywhere else.
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