Carmen Miranda was a symbol of joy, but his constant smile hid deep regrets, and he lost his life while still young.
“I was out of breath,” Carmen Miranda said after almost fainting while she was dancing on NBC's 'The Jimmy Durante Show' on August 4, 1955.
But, as they say in show business, the show must go on, so she soon regained her eternal smile.
At the end of the program, she came out dancing through a door, saying goodbye to her with the joy that characterized her.
She went home, where her friends were waiting for her, with whom she drank, sang, and chatted until 2 in the morning when she went to her room and she died.
When her body arrived in Rio de Janeiro, a crowd estimated at nearly a million people took to the streets to honor someone who was the most powerful image of Brazil abroad.
In her short life she had gone from being a tie saleswoman to becoming the most popular singer in the country, the first radio artist to have an exclusive contract and participate in the first talkies and musicals in Brazil.
She then conquered Broadway and Hollywood with her talent, image, and personality, which for international audiences was exotic, vibrant, and irresistible.
With her roles in films and her performances in theaters and nightclubs, she became the highest-paid woman in the United States in the 1940s.
She was the first Latin American star to be invited to leave her footprints outside the Chinese Theater in Hollywood and to be honored with a star on the Walk of Fame.
But the "Brazilian bombshell's" incandescent career wreaked havoc, and when she insisted on asking her body for more than she could give, her heart couldn't resist.
What Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha did was her own exceptional creation.
Born in a humble family in Marco de Canaveses, Portugal, but still carried in her arms to the city that would be her home, Rio de Janeiro, the woman who carved out space until then non-existent in the world of entertainment with the name of Carmen Miranda He began to collect essential elements for his success from the beginning.
Of course, she had talent, but as someone said, "Genius is 1% talent and 99% hard work."
From her first day as an artist to her last, she was a tireless professional, always punctual, who dedicated all the necessary hours and more to rehearsing, as the musicians and film and theater directors who worked with her attested.
She sang for years wherever she could until she had the opportunity to cement her art at the hands of the Brazilian musician Josué de Barros, who mentored her, taught her popular songs, and played for her in recitals and radio shows.
In 1929 she began recording records and her fame came when she was 21 years old with a song called "Taí (So that you like it)" composed by Joubert de Carvalho.
It broke all records by being the great success of the Rio Carnival in 1930 and made Miranda a star.
Instantly becoming the most famous woman in Brazil, in the following years she traveled throughout the country, as well as Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile. She sang alone and with great composers in theaters, on the radio, and in cinema.
Known as “Pequeña Notable”, “Estrella Máxima” and even the “Laughing Dictator of Samba”, she recorded almost 300 songs and sold 10 million records.
At the same time, she was inventing, refining, and enriching her image, which she began to create in her adolescence, always wearing very high heels, to raise her 1.53-meter height.
Little by little, she devised her own style, designing her own costumes, jewelry, and accessories, inspired by the cultural variety that surrounded her and appreciating the work of local artisans.
Her originality made her a fashion reference, with her fans copying her creations at home and, later, with her models of sandals, turbans, clothing, necklaces, and bracelets in the windows of stores around the world that offered the "Miranda Look.".
